---
title: So the bee spread his shining wings and flew away to do as he was bi… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the bee spread his shining wings and flew away to do as he was bidden; but before he was out of sight a greedy swallow made a snatch at him, and to the great grief of the princess her messenger was eaten up then and there. Who acts: bee, greedy swallow. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by And
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/32/6/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/32/) / 6

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the bee spread his shining wings and flew away to do as he was bidden; but before he was out of sight a greedy swallow made a snatch at him, and to the great grief of the princess her messenger was eaten up then and there.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bee, greedy swallow · **What happens:** spread, shine, fly away, do, bid, be · **To what, where:** shining wings, bee, sight, snatch, messenger

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bee, greedy swallow), 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:pg3282:32:6
# text = So the bee spread his shining wings and flew away to do as he was bidden; but before he was out of sight a greedy swallow made a snatch at him, and to the great grief of the princess her messenger was eaten up then and there.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bee	bee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	amod	_	_
7	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
19	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	advcl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	snatch	snatch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	_
42	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	messenger	messenger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nsubj:pass	_	_
44	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	aux:pass	_	_
45	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	conj	_	_
46	up	up	ADP	RP	_	45	compound:prt	_	_
47	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	45	advmod	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
49	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	47	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread** | past | the bee | bee's shining wings |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wing=Theme |
| 2 | **shine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fly away** | past | the bee *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | the bee *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **bid** | past · passive |  | bee |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | bee |  |  | sight |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **make** | past | a greedy swallow | a snatch |  |  |  | at bee | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset snatch=Product |
| 8 | **eat up** | past · passive |  | princess's messenger |  |  | then | to the great grief of the princess | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/32/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/32/7/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/32/)