---
title: After this the king’s men began to talk about the bird Grip, and how… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After this the king’s men began to talk about the bird Grip, and how strange it was that he would not sing, however well he was attended to. Who acts: men, steed. 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 cl
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/74/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/) / 74

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After this the king’s men began to talk about the bird Grip, and how strange it was that he would not sing, however well he was attended to.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** men, steed · **What happens:** begin, talk, not be, attend · **To what, where:** man

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (men, steed), 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:pg5615:15:74
# text = After this the king’s men began to talk about the bird Grip, and how strange it was that he would not sing, however well he was attended to.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	Grip	grip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
17	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	however	however	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	attended	attend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | this king's men |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **talk** | to-infinitive | this king's men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the bird Grip | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about grip=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **is** | would · past | steed |  |  |  |  | sing *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **attend** | past · passive |  | man |  |  |  | however, well *property* | vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Goal |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/73/)
- next →: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/75/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/15/)