---
title: 'No one,' replied the city swallow, 'except an owl, who lives a herm… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'No one,' replied the city swallow, 'except an owl, who lives a hermit's life in that desert, and he knows only one word of man's speech, and that is "cross." Who acts: one, owl, ', that. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 33, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'No one,' replied the city swallow, 'except an owl, who lives a hermit's life in that desert, and he knows only one word of man's speech, and that is "cross."

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**Who acts:** one, owl, ', that, man · **What happens:** reply, live, know, be, word, speak · **To what, where:** city swallow, life, desert, one word, cross, speech · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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, owl, ', that), 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:pg3027:33:41
# text = 'No one,' replied the city swallow, 'except an owl, who lives a hermit's life in that desert, and he knows only one word of man's speech, and that is "cross."
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	3	det	_	_
3	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	except	except	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	lives	live	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hermit	hermit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
29	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	's	's	PART	POS	_	33	case	_	_
35	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
38	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	41	nsubj	_	_
39	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
40	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	cross	cross	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | no one | the city swallow |  |  |  | except a owl | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent swallow=Topic |
| 2 | **live** | present | a owl | a hermit's life |  | that desert |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme life=Location |
| 3 | **know** | present | ' | one word of man's speech |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | cross |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **word** |  |  | man's speech |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **speak** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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