---
title: The King was having his dinner, but he at once despatched one of his… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King was having his dinner, but he at once despatched one of his courtiers to find out what the huge, strange new bird could be that had come flying through the air. Who acts: King, huge strange new bird. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24), with its depende
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Flying Ship(24), sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The King was having his dinner, but he at once despatched one of his courtiers to find out what the huge, strange new bird could be that had come flying through the air.

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**Who acts:** King, huge strange new bird · **What happens:** have, despatch, find out, be, come, fly · **To what, where:** dinner, one, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, huge strange new bird), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg640:2431`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg640:35:76
# text = The King was having his dinner, but he at once despatched one of his courtiers to find out what the huge, strange new bird could be that had come flying through the air.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	obl	_	_
12	despatched	despatch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	courtiers	courtier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	ccomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
22	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	acl:relcl	_	_
32	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	xcomp	_	_
33	through	through	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past · progressive | the King | King's dinner |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Patient |
| 2 | **despatch** | past | King | one of King's courtiers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **find out** | to-infinitive | King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | could | the huge strange new bird |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | past · perfect | the huge strange new bird |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **fly** | gerund | the huge strange new bird *not said here* |  |  | the air |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through air=Location |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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