---
title: Next a flight of birds will come and alight on the tree, and never d… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Next a flight of birds will come and alight on the tree, and never didst thou hear a strain so sweet as that which they will sing. Who acts: flight, strain. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Next a flight of birds will come and alight on the tree, and never didst thou hear a strain so sweet as that which they will sing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** flight, strain · **What happens:** come, not do, hear, sing · **To what, where:** tree, thou, strain

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (flight, strain), 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:pg3454:30:45
# text = Next a flight of birds will come and alight on the tree, and never didst thou hear a strain so sweet as that which they will sing.
1	Next	next	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	alight	alight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	didst	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
17	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	obj	_	_
18	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	strain	strain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	obl	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | future | a flight of birds |  |  | the tree |  | next *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on tree=Location |
| 2 | **not** **do** | past | a flight of birds *not said here* | thou |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | infinitive | a flight of birds *not said here* | a strain |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer strain=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | future | a strain |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «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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