---
title: He started to the feathers, and picked and picked until there was on… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He started to the feathers, and picked and picked until there was only a single feather left that had not passed through his hands. Who acts: He, single feather. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/26/4/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 4

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He started to the feathers, and picked and picked until there was only a single feather left that had not passed through his hands.

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**Who acts:** He, single feather · **What happens:** start, pick, be, leave, not pass · **To what, where:** that, hands

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (He, single feather), 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:pg5615:26:4
# text = He started to the feathers, and picked and picked until there was only a single feather left that had not passed through his hands.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	picked	pick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	picked	pick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
11	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	_
23	through	through	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	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | past | He |  |  |  |  | to the feathers | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **pick** | participle | He *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pick** | participle | He *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **be** | past | a single feather *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **leave** | past | a single feather |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **pass** | past · perfect | a single feather *not said here* | that |  | his hands |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent that=Theme through hand=Destination |

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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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