---
title: A white bird carried his sledge; he was sitting in the Snow-queen’s… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A white bird carried his sledge; he was sitting in the Snow-queen’s carriage which drove over the forest when our little ones were in the nest. Who acts: white bird, bird, carriage, little ones. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 22

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A white bird carried his sledge; he was sitting in the Snow-queen’s carriage which drove over the forest when our little ones were in the nest.

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**Who acts:** white bird, bird, carriage, little ones · **What happens:** carry, sit, drive, be · **To what, where:** sledge, carriage, forest, nest

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white bird, bird, carriage, little ones), 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:pg5615:10:22
# text = A white bird carried his sledge; he was sitting in the Snow-queen’s carriage which drove over the forest when our little ones were in the nest.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	sledge	sledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	Snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	carriage	carriage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
24	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | past | a white bird | bird's sledge |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sledge=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past · progressive | bird |  |  | the Snow queen's carriage |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in carriage=Location |
| 3 | **drive** | past | the Snow queen's carriage |  |  | the forest |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over forest=Trajectory |
| 4 | **is** | past | our little ones |  |  | the nest |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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