---
title: So they followed the eagle, who flew before them, though so high was… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So they followed the eagle, who flew before them, though so high was he in the sky, it was often hard to mark his flight. Who acts: birds, eagle, Llyw. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/39/122/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/39/) / 122

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So they followed the eagle, who flew before them, though so high was he in the sky, it was often hard to mark his flight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** birds, eagle, Llyw · **What happens:** follow, fly, be, mark · **To what, where:** eagle, high sky, flight

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, eagle, Llyw), 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:pg3454:39:122
# text = So they followed the eagle, who flew before them, though so high was he in the sky, it was often hard to mark his flight.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	expl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	often	often	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	mark	mark	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	csubj	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | past | birds *= bird* | the eagle |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eagle=Theme |
| 2 | **fly** | past | the eagle |  |  |  | before birds *= bird* |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent before they=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | Llyw |  |  | the high sky |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | Llyw *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard, often *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **mark** | to-infinitive |  | Llyw's flight |  |  |  |  | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent flight=Destination |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/39/121/)
- next →: [sentence 123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/39/123/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/39/)