---
title: While trudging along they saw a big bird hovering in the air, circli… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While trudging along they saw a big bird hovering in the air, circling slowly above them, but always descending lower, till at last it settled on a rock not far from them. Who acts: air, boulders, big bird. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its depende
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While trudging along they saw a big bird hovering in the air, circling slowly above them, but always descending lower, till at last it settled on a rock not far from them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** air, boulders, big bird · **What happens:** trudge, see, hover, circle, descend, settle · **To what, where:** big bird, air, last

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (air, boulders, big bird), 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:pg503:36:74
# text = While trudging along they saw a big bird hovering in the air, circling slowly above them, but always descending lower, till at last it settled on a rock not far from them.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	trudging	trudge	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
3	along	along	ADP	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	hovering	hover	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	circling	circle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	conj	_	_
15	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	above	above	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	descending	descend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
22	lower	low	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
24	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	obl	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	settled	settle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
33	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
34	from	from	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **trudge** | gerund | air *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | boulders *= boulder* | a big bird |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus |
| 3 | **hover** | gerund | a big bird *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Location |
| 4 | **circle** | gerund | a big bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | above boulders *= boulder*; slowly *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **descend** | gerund | air *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always, low *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **settle** | past | air |  |  | last |  | on a rock; far *property* | vn odge-46-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at last=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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