---
title: One day, when he had been left alone for a few minutes, a bird with… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, when he had been left alone for a few minutes, a bird with brilliant plumage came and fluttered round the window, and finally rested on the sill. Who acts: bird. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 39

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One day, when he had been left alone for a few minutes, a bird with brilliant plumage came and fluttered round the window, and finally rested on the sill.

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**Who acts:** bird · **What happens:** leave, come, flutter, rest · **To what, where:** Saphir, sill

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird), 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:pg640:11:39
# text = One day, when he had been left alone for a few minutes, a bird with brilliant plumage came and fluttered round the window, and finally rested on the sill.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	alone	alone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	brilliant	brilliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
23	round	round	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	finally	finally	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	rested	rest	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	sill	sill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past · perfect · passive |  | Saphir |  |  | day; minute | alone *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | a bird with brilliant plumage |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **flutter** | participle | a bird with brilliant plumage *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round the window | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **rest** | participle |  |  |  | the sill |  | finally *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on sill=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.

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**Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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