---
title: Shortly after, he was sitting in the garden, thinking that the swall… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Shortly after, he was sitting in the garden, thinking that the swallows must have forgotten his message, when he saw an eagle flying above him. Who acts: prince, swallows, eagle. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 97

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Shortly after, he was sitting in the garden, thinking that the swallows must have forgotten his message, when he saw an eagle flying above him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, swallows, eagle · **What happens:** sit, think, forget, see, fly · **To what, where:** garden, message, eagle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (prince, swallows, eagle), 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:pg503:26:97
# text = Shortly after, he was sitting in the garden, thinking that the swallows must have forgotten his message, when he saw an eagle flying above him.
1	Shortly	shortly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	swallows	swallow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	_
17	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	message	message	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	above	above	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | prince |  |  | the garden |  | shortly *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in garden=Location |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **forget** | must · perfect | the swallows | prince's message |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | past | prince | a eagle |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eagle=Stimulus |
| 5 | **fly** | gerund | a eagle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | above prince | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme above he=Location |

<!-- .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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