---
title: The parrot said so many clever and tender things to comfort her that… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The parrot said so many clever and tender things to comfort her that she began to doubt whether this could indeed be her own parrot. Who acts: parrot, Princess, this. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The parrot said so many clever and tender things to comfort her that she began to doubt whether this could indeed be her own parrot.

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**Who acts:** parrot, Princess, this · **What happens:** say, comfort, begin, doubt, be · **To what, where:** many clever things, Princess, own parrot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, 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 (parrot, Princess, this), 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:pg640:20:42
# text = The parrot said so many clever and tender things to comfort her that she began to doubt whether this could indeed be her own parrot.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	parrot	parrot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
6	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	tender	tender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
9	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	comfort	comfort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	doubt	doubt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
21	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	parrot	parrot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the parrot | many clever things |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **comfort** | to-infinitive |  | Princess |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 3 | **begin** | past | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **doubt** | to-infinitive | Princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | could | this | Princess's own parrot |  |  |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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