---
title: Thus he spoke to himself, when his eyes fell on a golden cock and a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus he spoke to himself, when his eyes fell on a golden cock and a silver hen running swiftly along the grass in front of him. Who acts: wisdom, eyes, silver hen. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 19

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Thus he spoke to himself, when his eyes fell on a golden cock and a silver hen running swiftly along the grass in front of him.

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**Who acts:** wisdom, eyes, silver hen · **What happens:** speak, fall, run · **To what, where:** wisdom, front · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wisdom, eyes, silver hen), 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:pg3027:30:19
# text = Thus he spoke to himself, when his eyes fell on a golden cock and a silver hen running swiftly along the grass in front of him.
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
19	running	run	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	_
20	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	along	along	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | wisdom |  | wisdom |  |  | thus *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to himself=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **fall** | past | wisdom's eyes |  |  |  |  | on a golden cock and a silver hen | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on cock=Location |
| 3 | **run** | gerund | a silver hen *not said here* |  |  | front of wisdom |  | along the grass; swiftly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along grass=Trajectory |

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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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