---
title: The poor birds began to despair, when, one evening, after they had b… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor birds began to despair, when, one evening, after they had been for a wonder hunting together, they found two sisters fast asleep on their two beds. Who acts: poor birds, birds, wonder. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/26/75/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 75

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The poor birds began to despair, when, one evening, after they had been for a wonder hunting together, they found two sisters fast asleep on their two beds.

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**Who acts:** poor birds, birds, wonder · **What happens:** begin, despair, be, hunt, find · **To what, where:** two sisters

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor birds, birds, wonder), 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:pg3027:26:75
# text = The poor birds began to despair, when, one evening, after they had been for a wonder hunting together, they found two sisters fast asleep on their two beds.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	despair	despair	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	after	after	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	cop	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
20	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	together	together	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
28	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
32	beds	bed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the poor birds |  |  |  | evening |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **despair** | to-infinitive | the poor birds *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past · perfect | birds *= bird* |  |  |  | after a wonder |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hunt** | gerund | a wonder *not said here* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **find** | past | birds *= bird* | two sisters |  |  |  | asleep *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sister=Topic |

<!-- .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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