---
title: While she was busy rubbing the corn she heard a whirr of wings, and… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While she was busy rubbing the corn she heard a whirr of wings, and a flock of sparrows flew in at the window. Who acts: cow, flock, wings. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 10, sentence 71

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While she was busy rubbing the corn she heard a whirr of wings, and a flock of sparrows flew in at the window.

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**Who acts:** cow, flock, wings · **What happens:** be, rub, hear, fly, whirr · **To what, where:** corn, whirr, window

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cow, flock, wings), 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:pg3027:10:71
# text = While she was busy rubbing the corn she heard a whirr of wings, and a flock of sparrows flew in at the window.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	rubbing	rub	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	whirr	whirr	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
20	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | cow |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **rub** | gerund | cow *not said here* | the corn |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent corn=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | past | cow | a whirr of wings |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer whirr=Stimulus |
| 4 | **fly** | past | a flock of sparrows |  |  | the window |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in window=Location |
| 5 | **whirr** |  | wings |  |  |  |  |  | nom whirr «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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