---
title: ‘Once every month I and my friends shoot birds in the forest,’ he an… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Once every month I and my friends shoot birds in the forest,’ he answered, ‘but I was tired and bade them leave me to rest. Who acts: I, king. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 13

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‘Once every month I and my friends shoot birds in the forest,’ he answered, ‘but I was tired and bade them leave me to rest.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, king · **What happens:** shoot, answer, be, bade, leave, rest · **To what, where:** birds, forest, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, king), 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:pg3454:21:13
# text = ‘Once every month I and my friends shoot birds in the forest,’ he answered, ‘but I was tired and bade them leave me to rest.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
3	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	det	_	_
4	month	month	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	shoot	shoot	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	bade	bade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	rest	rest	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shoot** | present | I | birds |  | the forest | month | once *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent bird=Theme in forest=Destination |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **bade** | past | king *not said here* | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **leave** | infinitive | king *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 6 | **rest** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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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