---
title: The raven promised faithfully to do her bidding, and, spreading its… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The raven promised faithfully to do her bidding, and, spreading its wings, flew away. Who acts: raven, thread. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The raven promised faithfully to do her bidding, and, spreading its wings, flew away.

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**Who acts:** raven, thread · **What happens:** promise, do, spread, fly away, bid · **To what, where:** bidding, wings

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (raven, thread), 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:pg503:26:30
# text = The raven promised faithfully to do her bidding, and, spreading its wings, flew away.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	away	away	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | the raven |  |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the raven *not said here* | thread's bidding |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bidding=Eventuality |
| 3 | **spread** | gerund | the raven *not said here* | bidding's wings |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location wing=Theme |
| 4 | **fly away** | past |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bid** |  | thread |  |  |  |  |  | nom bidding «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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