---
title: But the bird was too quick for him, and, flying behind his back, beg… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the bird was too quick for him, and, flying behind his back, begged the giant to have patience, as her death would be of no use to him. Who acts: bird, death. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 87

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the bird was too quick for him, and, flying behind his back, begged the giant to have patience, as her death would be of no use to him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bird, death · **What happens:** be, fly, beg, have, die · **To what, where:** back, patience, Parrot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, death), 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:pg3027:25:87
# text = But the bird was too quick for him, and, flying behind his back, begged the giant to have patience, as her death would be of no use to him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	ccomp	_	_
13	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
17	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	31	det	_	_
31	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the bird |  |  |  |  | for Parrot; quick *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund |  |  |  | Parrot's back |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme behind back=Location |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | giant *property* | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **have** | to-infinitive | the bird *not said here* | patience |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent patience=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | would | bird's death |  | Parrot |  |  | of no use | tree rules |
| 6 | **die** |  | bird |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: poss=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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