---
title: He could then take the bird, but he must beware of stroking it; othe… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He could then take the bird, but he must beware of stroking it; otherwise it would go ill with him. Who acts: fox, bird. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/7/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 7

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He could then take the bird, but he must beware of stroking it; otherwise it would go ill with him.

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**Who acts:** fox, bird · **What happens:** take, beware, stroke, go · **To what, where:** bird

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, 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:pg5615:15:7
# text = He could then take the bird, but he must beware of stroking it; otherwise it would go ill with him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	beware	beware	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
12	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	stroking	stroke	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
20	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | could | fox |  | the bird |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument bird=Destination |
| 2 | **beware** | must | fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **stroke** | gerund | fox *not said here* | bird |  |  |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **go** | would | bird |  |  |  |  | ill, otherwise *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 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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