---
title: They were still talking, when, suddenly, the bird settled the questi… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were still talking, when, suddenly, the bird settled the question by flying upwards through an open window into the king's own room. Who acts: courtiers, bird. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 33, sentence 110

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They were still talking, when, suddenly, the bird settled the question by flying upwards through an open window into the king's own room.

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**Who acts:** courtiers, bird · **What happens:** talk, settle, fly · **To what, where:** question, open window

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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 (courtiers, bird), 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:pg3027:33:110
# text = They were still talking, when, suddenly, the bird settled the question by flying upwards through an open window into the king's own room.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	settled	settle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	upwards	upwards	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	's	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | courtiers *= courtier* |  |  |  | still |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **settle** | past | the bird | the question |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme question=Location |
| 3 | **fly** | gerund | the bird *not said here* |  |  | a open window |  | into the king's own room; upwards *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through window=Location |

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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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