---
title: They flew round and round the head of the girl, when three grains of… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They flew round and round the head of the girl, when three grains of barley fell on the floor, and the silver pigeon dived down, and swallowed them. Who acts: pigeons, three grains, silver pigeon. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They flew round and round the head of the girl, when three grains of barley fell on the floor, and the silver pigeon dived down, and swallowed them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pigeons, three grains, silver pigeon · **What happens:** fly, round, fall, dive down, swallow · **To what, where:** head, floor, pigeons

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pigeons, three grains, silver pigeon), 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:pg3454:29:107
# text = They flew round and round the head of the girl, when three grains of barley fell on the floor, and the silver pigeon dived down, and swallowed them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	round	round	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	round	round	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	barley	barley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	dived	dive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	down	down	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | pigeons *= pigeon* |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **round** | infinitive | pigeons *= pigeon* *not said here* | the head of the girl |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 3 | **fall** | past | three grains of barley |  |  | the floor |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on floor=Location |
| 4 | **dive down** | past | the silver pigeon |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **swallow** | past | pigeons *= pigeon* *not said here* | pigeons *= pigeon* |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

<!-- .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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