---
title: The sun had not yet risen before the falcon soared high into the air… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The sun had not yet risen before the falcon soared high into the air, the cat seated on his back, with his paws tightly clasping the bird's neck. Who acts: falcon, paws. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/120/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/) / 120

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 14, sentence 120

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sun had not yet risen before the falcon soared high into the air, the cat seated on his back, with his paws tightly clasping the bird's neck.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** falcon, paws · **What happens:** not rise, soar, seat, clasp · **To what, where:** sun, air, cat, back, neck

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (falcon, paws), 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:pg3027:14:120
# text = The sun had not yet risen before the falcon soared high into the air, the cat seated on his back, with his paws tightly clasping the bird's neck.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	risen	rise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	falcon	falcon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	soared	soar	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
11	high	high	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
18	seated	seat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
26	tightly	tightly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	clasping	clasp	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **rise** | past · perfect · passive |  | the sun |  |  | yet |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **soar** | past | the falcon |  |  | the air |  | with falcon's paws; high *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into air=Trajectory |
| 3 | **seat** | participle |  | the cat *not said here* |  | falcon's back |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP.location V NP»: agent=Location |
| 4 | **clasp** | gerund | falcon's paws *not said here* | the bird's neck |  |  |  | tightly *property* | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neck=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:** «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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/119/)
- next →: [sentence 121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/121/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/14/)