---
title: The little singing-bird busied himself for some time with his broken… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The little singing-bird busied himself for some time with his broken wing, and at last he lay down, too, quite close to his protectress. Who acts: little singing bird, bird. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Portuguese Duck, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little singing-bird busied himself for some time with his broken wing, and at last he lay down, too, quite close to his protectress.

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**Who acts:** little singing bird, bird · **What happens:** busy, break, lie down · **To what, where:** bird, last

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Portuguese Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little singing bird, bird), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:145:66
# text = The little singing-bird busied himself for some time with his broken wing, and at last he lay down, too, quite close to his protectress.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
3	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	busied	busy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	amod	_	_
14	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
21	down	down	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	protectress	protectress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **busy** | past | the little singing bird | bird |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **lie down** | past | bird |  |  | last |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at last=Location |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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