---
title: He thought of that first, and it was fastened to one of the great wh… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought of that first, and it was fastened to one of the great white birds who flew behind with the sledge on its back. Who acts: sledge, great white birds. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/123/)

<!-- 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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/) / 123

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 123

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He thought of that first, and it was fastened to one of the great white birds who flew behind with the sledge on its back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sledge, great white birds · **What happens:** think, fasten, fly · **To what, where:** kiss, one, back

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sledge, great white birds), 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:pg5615:8:123
# text = He thought of that first, and it was fastened to one of the great white birds who flew behind with the sledge on its back.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	obl	_	_
5	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sledge	sledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | sledge |  |  |  |  | of that; first *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fasten** | past · passive |  | kiss | one of the great white birds |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Patient to one=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **fly** | past | the great white birds |  |  | kiss's back |  | with the sledge; behind *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent on back=Location |

<!-- .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 122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/122/)
- next →: [sentence 124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/124/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/8/)