---
title: “I’m looking back at my little pigeon, which is sitting on the roof… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I’m looking back at my little pigeon, which is sitting on the roof waving me a farewell,” answered Hansel. Who acts: Hansel, little pigeon. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Hansel and Grettel, sentence 55

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“I’m looking back at my little pigeon, which is sitting on the roof waving me a farewell,” answered Hansel.

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**Who acts:** Hansel, little pigeon · **What happens:** look back, sit, wave, answer · **To what, where:** roof, Hansel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hansel, little pigeon), 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:pg503:35:55
# text = “I’m looking back at my little pigeon, which is sitting on the roof waving me a farewell,” answered Hansel.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’m	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	ccomp	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	waving	wave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	farewell	farewell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
23	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
24	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look back** *in a quote* | present · progressive | Hansel |  |  |  |  | at my little pigeon | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at pigeon=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** *in a quote* | present · progressive | my little pigeon |  |  | the roof |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on roof=Location |
| 3 | **wave** *in a quote* | gerund | my little pigeon *not said here* | Hansel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Hansel |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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