---
title: They flew nearer, and presently the young birds woke and cried, “Mot… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They flew nearer, and presently the young birds woke and cried, “Mother, what have you brought for us?” and they told the whole story of the fight, and of how they were alive only by the favour of the young man under the tree, and of his cutting up the dragon and of their eating it. Who acts: birds,
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 91

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They flew nearer, and presently the young birds woke and cried, “Mother, what have you brought for us?” and they told the whole story of the fight, and of how they were alive only by the favour of the young man under the tree, and of his cutting up the dragon and of their eating it.

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**Who acts:** birds, young birds, person · **What happens:** fly, wake, cry, bring, tell, be · **To what, where:** Mother, whole story, dragon, young man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, young birds, person), 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:pg3282:4:91
# text = They flew nearer, and presently the young birds woke and cried, “Mother, what have you brought for us?” and they told the whole story of the fight, and of how they were alive only by the favour of the young man under the tree, and of his cutting up the dragon and of their eating it.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
6	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	woke	wake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	fight	fight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
36	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
37	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	40	advmod	_	_
38	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
40	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
41	only	only	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
42	by	by	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	favour	favour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	_
45	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nmod	_	_
49	under	under	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
54	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	56	mark	_	_
55	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Gender=Masc|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
56	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	conj	_	_
57	up	up	ADP	RP	_	56	compound:prt	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obj	_	_
60	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	63	cc	_	_
61	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	63	mark	_	_
62	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nsubj	_	_
63	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	56	conj	_	_
64	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	63	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **wake** | past | the young birds |  |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the young birds *not said here* | Mother |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bring** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Mother |  |  |  | for us | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | birds *= bird* | the whole story of the fight |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |
| 6 | **is** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | by the favour of the young man under the tree; alive *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **cut up** | gerund | person | the dragon |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset dragon=Product |
| 8 | **eat** | gerund | birds *= bird* | dragon |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 9 | **favour** |  |  | the young man under the tree |  |  |  |  | nom favour «feeling transitive»: of=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.

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**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.

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