---
title: Then the bird—having taken the vessel on her back, with the Prince s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the bird—having taken the vessel on her back, with the Prince sitting in the middle of it—began to fly. Who acts: bird, Prince. 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 97

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the bird—having taken the vessel on her back, with the Prince sitting in the middle of it—began to fly.

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**Who acts:** bird, Prince · **What happens:** take, sit, begin, fly · **To what, where:** vessel, back, middle

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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 (bird, Prince), 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:pg540:13:97
# text = Then the bird—having taken the vessel on her back, with the Prince sitting in the middle of it—began to fly.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	aux	_	_
6	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | gerund · perfect | the bird *not said here* | the vessel |  | lightning's back |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent vessel=Theme on back=Destination |
| 2 | **sit** | gerund | the Prince |  |  | the middle of vessel |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location |
| 3 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **fly** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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 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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