---
title: While flying in the swan's plumage she had learnt the bird language;… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: While flying in the swan's plumage she had learnt the bird language; she had often conversed with the stork and the swallow, and she knew that the nightingale would understand. Who acts: nightingale. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter,
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 6, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While flying in the swan's plumage she had learnt the bird language; she had often conversed with the stork and the swallow, and she knew that the nightingale would understand.

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**Who acts:** nightingale · **What happens:** fly, learn, converse, know, understand · **To what, where:** plumage, bird language, nightingale · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nightingale), 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:pg27200:88:50
# text = While flying in the swan's plumage she had learnt the bird language; she had often conversed with the stork and the swallow, and she knew that the nightingale would understand.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	learnt	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	often	often	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	conversed	converse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	nightingale	nightingale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  | the swan's plumage |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in plumage=Location |
| 2 | **learn** | past · perfect | nightingale | the bird language |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Topic |
| 3 | **converse** *speech: other* | past · perfect · passive |  | nightingale |  |  |  | with the stork and the swallow; often *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | past | nightingale |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **understand** | would | the nightingale |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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