---
title: Of course the swallows had no idea that the children understood thei… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Of course the swallows had no idea that the children understood their language, or they would not have talked so freely; but, as it was, they said whatever came into their heads. Who acts: swallows, children, language, whatever. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32,
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 32, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Of course the swallows had no idea that the children understood their language, or they would not have talked so freely; but, as it was, they said whatever came into their heads.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** swallows, children, language, whatever · **What happens:** have, understand, not talk, be, say, come · **To what, where:** idea, language, heads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swallows, children, language, whatever), 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:pg3027:32:118
# text = Of course the swallows had no idea that the children understood their language, or they would not have talked so freely; but, as it was, they said whatever came into their heads.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	fixed	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux	_	_
20	talked	talk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	freely	freely	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
32	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
33	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	ccomp	_	_
34	into	into	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the swallows | no idea |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent idea=Patient |
| 2 | **understand** | past | the children | swallows's language |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **talk** | would · perfect | swallows *= swallow* |  |  |  |  | freely *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **be** | past | language |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | swallows *= swallow* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **come** | past | whatever |  |  | swallows's heads |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into head=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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