---
title: Nought did he see but the birds that made their nests in the trees,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Nought did he see but the birds that made their nests in the trees, not so much as a goat or a rabbit. Who acts: Nought, birds. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 5

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Nought did he see but the birds that made their nests in the trees, not so much as a goat or a rabbit.

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**Who acts:** Nought, birds · **What happens:** see, make · **To what, where:** nests, trees

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nought, birds), 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:pg3454:17:5
# text = Nought did he see but the birds that made their nests in the trees, not so much as a goat or a rabbit.
1	Nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past · do-support | Nought |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **make** | past | the birds | birds's nests |  | the trees |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset nest=Product |

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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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