---
title: The canary-bird fluttered in his cage, and the parrot flapped his wi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The canary-bird fluttered in his cage, and the parrot flapped his wings and cried, "Let us be men;" the poor clerk, in the most deadly terror, flew through the window, over the houses, and through the streets, till at length he was obliged to seek a resting-place. Who acts: canary bird, men. A sente
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/144/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Clerk's Transformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/) / 144

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation, sentence 144

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The canary-bird fluttered in his cage, and the parrot flapped his wings and cried, "Let us be men;" the poor clerk, in the most deadly terror, flew through the window, over the houses, and through the streets, till at length he was obliged to seek a resting-place.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** canary bird, men · **What happens:** flutter, flap, cry, let, be, fly · **To what, where:** canary bird, cage, wings, us, window, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Clerk's Transformation. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (canary bird, men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:44:144
# text = The canary-bird fluttered in his cage, and the parrot flapped his wings and cried, "Let us be men;" the poor clerk, in the most deadly terror, flew through the window, over the houses, and through the streets, till at length he was obliged to seek a resting-place.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	canary	canary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
5	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	parrot	parrot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	flapped	flap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
21	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
32	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	33	advmod	_	_
33	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
37	through	through	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	over	over	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
46	through	through	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
50	till	till	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	at	at	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	_
53	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
54	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	55	aux:pass	_	_
55	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
56	to	to	PART	TO	_	57	mark	_	_
57	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	xcomp	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
59	resting	resting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	59	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flutter** | participle |  | the canary bird *not said here* |  | cat's cage |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cage=Location |
| 2 | **flap** | past | the canary bird | cat's wings |  |  |  | the poor clerk and the deadly terror *obl* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Patient |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the canary bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* | infinitive | men |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **fly** | past |  |  |  | the window |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through window=Location |
| 7 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | man |  | the streets | till length |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 8 | **seek** | to-infinitive |  | a resting place |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/143/)
- next →: [sentence 145](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/145/)
- ↑ back to [The Clerk's Transformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/44/)