---
title: ‘Fly down and ask what the matter is,’ he said to the little bird, w… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Fly down and ask what the matter is,’ he said to the little bird, who sped off like lightning and soon returned saying: Who acts: matter, swallow, little bird. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/22/62/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, sentence 62

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‘Fly down and ask what the matter is,’ he said to the little bird, who sped off like lightning and soon returned saying:

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**Who acts:** matter, swallow, little bird · **What happens:** fly down, ask, be, say, speed off, return · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (matter, swallow, little 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:pg640:22:62
# text = ‘Fly down and ask what the matter is,’ he said to the little bird, who sped off like lightning and soon returned saying:
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
3	down	down	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	ccomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	sped	speed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
26	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
27	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly down** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present | the matter |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | swallow |  |  |  |  | to the little bird | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to bird=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 5 | **speed off** | past | the little bird |  |  |  |  | like lightning | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **return** | past | the little bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the little bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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