---
title: And the bird did explain; and the king heard for the first time of t… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the bird did explain; and the king heard for the first time of the wicked plot that had been successful for so many years. Who acts: bird, king, wicked plot. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 34, sentence 6

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And the bird did explain; and the king heard for the first time of the wicked plot that had been successful for so many years.

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**Who acts:** bird, king, wicked plot · **What happens:** explain, hear, be

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, king, wicked plot), 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:pg3027:34:6
# text = And the bird did explain; and the king heard for the first time of the wicked plot that had been successful for so many years.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	14	amod	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	plot	plot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
22	successful	successful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	acl:relcl	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | the bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past | the king |  |  |  | time; year |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past · perfect | the wicked plot |  |  |  |  | successful *property* | tree rules |

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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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