---
title: And as she was trying to comfort him they heard a rustling of wings,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And as she was trying to comfort him they heard a rustling of wings, and a flight of wrens alighted on the ground beside them. Who acts: girl, mice. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And as she was trying to comfort him they heard a rustling of wings, and a flight of wrens alighted on the ground beside them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** girl, mice · **What happens:** try, comfort, hear, alight, rustle · **To what, where:** peasant, rustling, wrens, ground, wings

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, mice), 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:pg640:39:35
# text = And as she was trying to comfort him they heard a rustling of wings, and a flight of wrens alighted on the ground beside them.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	comfort	comfort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	rustling	rustling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	wrens	wren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	alighted	alight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past · progressive | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **comfort** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* | peasant |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **hear** | past | mice *= mouse* | a rustling of wings |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer rustling=Stimulus |
| 4 | **alight** | participle |  | wrens *not said here* |  | the ground beside mice |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **rustle** |  |  | wings |  |  |  |  | nom rustling «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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