---
title: As she was crossing a wood a bird sang to her to pick up a shining p… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As she was crossing a wood a bird sang to her to pick up a shining pebble which she would find in a fountain close by, and to use it when needed. Who acts: heroine. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 2, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As she was crossing a wood a bird sang to her to pick up a shining pebble which she would find in a fountain close by, and to use it when needed.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** heroine · **What happens:** cross, sing, pick up, shine, find, use · **To what, where:** wood, heroine, shining pebble, fountain, pebble

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), 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 (heroine), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:23:70
# text = As she was crossing a wood a bird sang to her to pick up a shining pebble which she would find in a fountain close by, and to use it when needed.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	amod	_	_
17	pebble	pebble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	fountain	fountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	use	use	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
33	needed	need	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past · progressive | heroine | a wood |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | past |  |  | heroine |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |
| 3 | **pick up** | to-infinitive |  | a shining pebble |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pebble=Topic |
| 4 | **shine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | would | heroine | a shining pebble |  | a fountain |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Topic |
| 6 | **use** | to-infinitive |  | pebble |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 7 | **need** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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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