---
title: Now this was the mother of those small birds which the Prince had co… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now this was the mother of those small birds which the Prince had covered up. Who acts: this. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Norka, sentence 89

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Now this was the mother of those small birds which the Prince had covered up.

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**Who acts:** this · **What happens:** be, cover up · **To what, where:** mother, small birds

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this), 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:pg540:13:89
# text = Now this was the mother of those small birds which the Prince had covered up.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
8	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this | the mother |  |  | now | of that small birds | tree rules |
| 2 | **cover up** | past · perfect · passive |  | that small birds |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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