---
title: The poor bird was closely pursued by an eagle, which would soon have… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The poor bird was closely pursued by an eagle, which would soon have eaten it up, had not Charming quickly fitted an arrow to his bow and shot the eagle dead. Who acts: eagle, Charming. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The poor bird was closely pursued by an eagle, which would soon have eaten it up, had not Charming quickly fitted an arrow to his bow and shot the eagle dead.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eagle, Charming · **What happens:** pursue, eat up, have, fit, shoot · **To what, where:** poor bird, bird, arrow, bow, eagle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eagle, Charming), 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:pg503:28:54
# text = The poor bird was closely pursued by an eagle, which would soon have eaten it up, had not Charming quickly fitted an arrow to his bow and shot the eagle dead.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	Charming	Charming	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	fitted	fit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	arrow	arrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	shot	shoot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	eagle	eagle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pursue** | past · passive | a eagle | the poor bird |  |  |  | closely *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **eat up** | would · perfect | a eagle | bird |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **have** | past | a eagle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fit** | past | Charming | a arrow |  |  |  | to eagle's bow *goal*; quickly *property* | vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent arrow=Patient to bow=Goal |
| 5 | **shoot** | past | Charming *not said here* | the eagle |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eagle=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 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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