---
title: “A crow can fly faster than a pigeon,” thought he, and as a crow he… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “A crow can fly faster than a pigeon,” thought he, and as a crow he managed to pass her and held his ground so long that he fancied she was quite beaten. Who acts: crow. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 94

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“A crow can fly faster than a pigeon,” thought he, and as a crow he managed to pass her and held his ground so long that he fancied she was quite beaten.

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**Who acts:** crow · **What happens:** fly, think, manage, pass, hold, fancy · **To what, where:** crow, sun, ground · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crow), 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:pg3282:7:94
# text = “A crow can fly faster than a pigeon,” thought he, and as a crow he managed to pass her and held his ground so long that he fancied she was quite beaten.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
6	faster	fast	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
33	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux:pass	_	_
35	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** *in a quote* | can | a crow |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | crow |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent he=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 3 | **manage** | past | crow |  |  |  |  | as a crow | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pass** | to-infinitive | crow *not said here* | sun |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Trajectory |
| 5 | **hold** | past | crow *not said here* | crow's ground |  |  |  | long *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ground=Theme |
| 6 | **fancy** | past | crow |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **beat** | past · passive |  | sun |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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