---
title: However, he was determined not to let this bird fly away; so he took… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: However, he was determined not to let this bird fly away; so he took up some water in the palm of his hand and held it to its beak. Who acts: Désiré, bird. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
However, he was determined not to let this bird fly away; so he took up some water in the palm of his hand and held it to its beak.

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**Who acts:** Désiré, bird · **What happens:** be, not let, fly away, take up, hold · **To what, where:** bird, water, palm

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Désiré, bird), 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:pg540:40:131
# text = However, he was determined not to let this bird fly away; so he took up some water in the palm of his hand and held it to its beak.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	determined	determined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	away	away	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Désiré |  |  |  |  | determined, however *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **let** | to-infinitive | Désiré *not said here* | this bird |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fly away** | infinitive | this bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **take up** | past | Désiré | some water |  | the palm of Désiré's hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent water=Value in palm=Location |
| 5 | **hold** | past | Désiré *not said here* | water |  |  |  | to water's beak | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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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