---
title: Only a big crow perched alone in the birch tree; and the gardener’s… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Only a big crow perched alone in the birch tree; and the gardener’s black cat sat under the birch tree, waiting to catch the crow. Who acts: black cat. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 78

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Only a big crow perched alone in the birch tree; and the gardener’s black cat sat under the birch tree, waiting to catch the crow.

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**Who acts:** black cat · **What happens:** perch, sit, wait, catch · **To what, where:** big crow, birch tree, crow

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (black cat), 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:pg3454:14:78
# text = Only a big crow perched alone in the birch tree; and the gardener’s black cat sat under the birch tree, waiting to catch the crow.
1	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	under	under	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	birch	birch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **perch** | participle |  | a big crow *not said here* |  | the birch tree |  | alone *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in tree=Location |
| 2 | **sit** | past | the gardener's black cat |  |  | the birch tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under tree=Location |
| 3 | **wait** | gerund | the gardener's black cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **catch** | to-infinitive | the gardener's black cat *not said here* | the crow |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crow=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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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