---
title: So the griffin alighted and ate his fill, saying, as he flew away, ‘… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the griffin alighted and ate his fill, saying, as he flew away, ‘Call me if you need me.’ Who acts: griffin, you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, 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/pg5615/22/80/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 80

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So the griffin alighted and ate his fill, saying, as he flew away, ‘Call me if you need me.’

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**Who acts:** griffin, you · **What happens:** alight, eat, say, fly away, call, need · **To what, where:** griffin, fill, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (griffin, you), 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:pg5615:22:80
# text = So the griffin alighted and ate his fill, saying, as he flew away, ‘Call me if you need me.’
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
6	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	fill	fill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
15	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	Call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	need	need	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **alight** | participle |  | the griffin *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | past | the griffin | griffin's fill |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fill=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the griffin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fly away** | past | griffin |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **call** | infinitive |  |  | me |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 6 | **need** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | me |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot i=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 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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