---
title: In a moment the bird swooped down beside him and asked: ‘What do you… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a moment the bird swooped down beside him and asked: ‘What do you wish me to do?’ Who acts: bird, you. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 3, sentence 8

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In a moment the bird swooped down beside him and asked: ‘What do you wish me to do?’

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**Who acts:** bird, you · **What happens:** swoop down, ask, wish, do · **To what, where:** me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, you), 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:pg640:32:8
# text = In a moment the bird swooped down beside him and asked: ‘What do you wish me to do?’
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	swooped	swoop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
15	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swoop down** | past | the bird |  |  |  | moment | beside Prince | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **wish** | present · do-support | you |  | me |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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