---
title: Soon--no one knew how--the news spread abroad that the Bird of Truth… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Soon--no one knew how--the news spread abroad that the Bird of Truth was hovering round the palace, and the courtiers made all sorts of preparations to hinder her reaching the king. Who acts: one, news, Bird, courtiers. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/101/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/) / 101

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 33, sentence 101

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Soon--no one knew how--the news spread abroad that the Bird of Truth was hovering round the palace, and the courtiers made all sorts of preparations to hinder her reaching the king.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** one, news, Bird, courtiers, sorts · **What happens:** know, spread, hover, make, hinder, reach · **To what, where:** sorts, news, king, preparations

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, news, Bird, courtiers), 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:pg3027:33:101
# text = Soon--no one knew how--the news spread abroad that the Bird of Truth was hovering round the palace, and the courtiers made all sorts of preparations to hinder her reaching the king.
1	Soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	abroad	abroad	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Bird	Bird	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Truth	Truth	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	hovering	hover	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
19	round	round	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	preparations	preparation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	hinder	hinder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	reaching	reach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | no one |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **spread** | past | the news |  |  |  |  | abroad *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hover** | past · progressive | the Bird of Truth |  |  |  |  | round the palace | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | past | the courtiers | all sorts of preparations |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hinder** | to-infinitive | all sorts of preparations *not said here* | news |  |  |  |  | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer she=Eventuality |
| 6 | **reach** | gerund | all sorts of preparations *not said here* | the king |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent king=Theme |
| 7 | **sort** |  |  | preparations |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/100/)
- next →: [sentence 102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/102/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/)