---
title: 'I can feed birds and tend pigs; I can feed and milk a cow, and also… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I can feed birds and tend pigs; I can feed and milk a cow, and also goats and sheep, if you have any of these,' replied Ian Direach. Who acts: I, you, Ian. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 7, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'I can feed birds and tend pigs; I can feed and milk a cow, and also goats and sheep, if you have any of these,' replied Ian Direach.

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**Who acts:** I, you, Ian · **What happens:** feed, tend, have, reply · **To what, where:** birds, pigs, cow, any · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you, Ian), 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:pg3027:7:56
# text = 'I can feed birds and tend pigs; I can feed and milk a cow, and also goats and sheep, if you have any of these,' replied Ian Direach.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	feed	feed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	ccomp	_	_
5	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	tend	tend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	feed	feed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	also	also	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	goats	goat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
32	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
33	Ian	Ian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
34	Direach	Direach	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feed** | can | I |  | birds |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Recipient |
| 2 | **tend** | present | I *not said here* | pigs |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pig=Theme |
| 3 | **feed** | can | I |  | a cow |  |  | goats and sheep *obl* | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Recipient |
| 4 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | any |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Patient |
| 5 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Ian |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

<!-- .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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