---
title: ‘The birds in the box told me,’ answered he, but he could say no mor… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘The birds in the box told me,’ answered he, but he could say no more, as they stepped out into the open space that was crowded with people. Who acts: birds, father, open space. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘The birds in the box told me,’ answered he, but he could say no more, as they stepped out into the open space that was crowded with people.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** birds, father, open space · **What happens:** tell, answer, say, step out, be · **To what, where:** me, father, more, open space · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (birds, father, open space), 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:pg3454:17:62
# text = ‘The birds in the box told me,’ answered he, but he could say no more, as they stepped out into the open space that was crowded with people.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
11	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
18	no	no	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
24	out	out	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
31	crowded	crowded	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	acl:relcl	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the birds in the box |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | father |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | father | more |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent more=Topic |
| 4 | **step out** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  | the open space |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into space=Destination |
| 5 | **is** | past | the open space |  |  |  |  | with people; crowded *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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