---
title: This was delightful news to the young man, who instantly bought some… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was delightful news to the young man, who instantly bought some meat for the falcon, bidding him make a good meal. Who acts: This, delightful news. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/116/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 14, sentence 116

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This was delightful news to the young man, who instantly bought some meat for the falcon, bidding him make a good meal.

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**Who acts:** This, delightful news · **What happens:** be, buy, bid, make · **To what, where:** delightful news, meat, falcon, good meal

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, delightful news), 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:pg3027:14:116
# text = This was delightful news to the young man, who instantly bought some meat for the falcon, bidding him make a good meal.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	delightful	delightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
11	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	falcon	falcon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	bidding	bid	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | This | delightful news |  |  |  | to the young man | tree rules |
| 2 | **buy** | past | delightful news | some meat |  |  |  | for the falcon; instantly *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent meat=Theme for falcon=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **bid** | gerund | delightful news *not said here* | falcon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | infinitive | delightful news *not said here* | a good meal |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset meal=Product |

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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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