---
title: On a sudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the… — Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth · tree and pragmatics
description: On a sudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. Who acts: birds, flocks. A sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Hamet and Raschid., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth, Hamet and Raschid., sentence 2

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On a sudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the flocks to bleat.

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**Who acts:** birds, flocks · **What happens:** becalm, cease, chirp, bleat · **To what, where:** sudden air, birds

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This is a sentence of «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Hamet and Raschid.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds, flocks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62868:5:2
# text = On a sudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the flocks to bleat.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	sudden	sudden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	becalmed	becalm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl:agent	_	_
11	ceased	cease	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	chirp	chirp	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	flocks	flock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	bleat	bleat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **becalm** | past · passive | the birds |  |  | a sudden air |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cease** | participle |  | the birds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **chirp** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bleat** | to-infinitive | the flocks |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «Oriental tales, for the entertainment of youth» by Anonymous, Project Gutenberg book 62868 (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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