--- title: While he was gazing on it and wondering what it could mean, he heard… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: While he was gazing on it and wondering what it could mean, he heard the sweeping of wings above him, and looking up he saw a huge vulture with open claws swooping down upon him. Who acts: hare, dove, open claws. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 5, w --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/26/29/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Glass Mountain(16), part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/26/) / 29 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 5, sentence 29 While he was gazing on it and wondering what it could mean, he heard the sweeping of wings above him, and looking up he saw a huge vulture with open claws swooping down upon him. **Who acts:** hare, dove, open claws · **What happens:** gaze, wonder, mean, hear, look up, see · **To what, where:** sweeping, huge vulture, wings · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hare, dove, open claws), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:26:29 # text = While he was gazing on it and wondering what it could mean, he heard the sweeping of wings above him, and looking up he saw a huge vulture with open claws swooping down upon him. 1 While while SCONJ IN _ 4 mark _ _ 2 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|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 gazing gaze VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 15 advcl _ _ 5 on on ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 6 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 obl _ _ 7 and and CCONJ CC _ 8 cc _ _ 8 wondering wonder VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 4 conj _ _ 9 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 12 obj _ _ 10 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 nsubj _ _ 11 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 12 aux _ _ 12 mean mean VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 14 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 15 heard hear VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 sweeping sweeping NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 obj _ _ 18 of of ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 19 wings wing NOUN NNS Number=Plur 17 nmod _ _ 20 above above ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 22 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 24 looking look VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 27 advcl _ _ 25 up up ADP RP _ 24 compound:prt _ _ 26 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 27 nsubj _ _ 27 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 15 conj _ _ 28 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 29 huge huge ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 30 amod _ _ 30 vulture vulture NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obj _ _ 31 with with ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 open open ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 33 amod _ _ 33 claws claw NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 nmod _ _ 34 swooping swoop VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 33 acl _ _ 35 down down ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ _ 36 upon upon ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 37 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 . . PUNCT . _ 15 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **gaze** | past · progressive | hare | | | | | on dove | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on it=Theme | | 2 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | hare *not said here* | | | | | | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 3 | **mean** | could | dove | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic | | 4 | **hear** | past | hare | the sweeping of wings above bird | | | | | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sweeping=Stimulus | | 5 | **look up** | gerund | hare *not said here* | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 6 | **see** | past | hare | a huge vulture | | | | with open claws | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer vulture=Stimulus | | 7 | **swoop down** | gerund | open claws *not said here* | | | | | upon hare; down *property* | tree rules | | 8 | **sweep** | | | wings above bird | | | | | nom sweeping «act transitive»: of=patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/26/28/) - next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/26/30/) - ↑ back to [The Glass Mountain(16), part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/26/)