---
title: But long though they watched, neither the owl nor the eagle ever cam… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But long though they watched, neither the owl nor the eagle ever came; neither that day nor the next, nor the next, nor the next. Who acts: sisters, eagle. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 92

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But long though they watched, neither the owl nor the eagle ever came; neither that day nor the next, nor the next, nor the next.

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**Who acts:** sisters, eagle · **What happens:** watch, come · **To what, where:** owl

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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 (sisters, eagle), 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:pg3027:26:92
# text = But long though they watched, neither the owl nor the eagle ever came; neither that day nor the next, nor the next, nor the next.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
3	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	9	cc:preconj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
10	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	14	advmod	_	_
14	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
19	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	21	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	29	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past | sisters *= sister* | the owl nor the eagle |  |  | day | long *property* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent owl=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | the eagle *not said here* |  |  |  | ever |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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