---
title: His only idea was to make straight for those spots which were the fa… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His only idea was to make straight for those spots which were the favourite haunts of birds. Who acts: only idea, spots. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 52

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His only idea was to make straight for those spots which were the favourite haunts of birds.

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**Who acts:** only idea, spots · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** favourite haunts

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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 (only idea, spots), 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:pg640:11:52
# text = His only idea was to make straight for those spots which were the favourite haunts of birds.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	spots	spot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	favourite	favourite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	haunts	haunt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	acl:relcl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | bird's only idea |  |  |  |  | for that spots; make, straight *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | that spots | the favourite haunts |  |  |  | of birds | tree rules |

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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 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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