--- title: And the birch rustled its leaves, and said: ‘I have served you longe… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: And the birch rustled its leaves, and said: ‘I have served you longer than I can say, and you never tied a bit of twine even round my branches; and the dear children bound them up with their brightest ribbons.’ Who acts: birch, I, you, dear children. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew L --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/67/) [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 Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/) / 67 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 67 And the birch rustled its leaves, and said: ‘I have served you longer than I can say, and you never tied a bit of twine even round my branches; and the dear children bound them up with their brightest ribbons.’ **Who acts:** birch, I, you, dear children · **What happens:** rustle, say, serve, not tie, bound up · **To what, where:** leaves, you, bit, branches · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (birch, I, you, dear children), 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:pg640:39:67 # text = And the birch rustled its leaves, and said: ‘I have served you longer than I can say, and you never tied a bit of twine even round my branches; and the dear children bound them up with their brightest ribbons.’ 1 And and CCONJ CC _ 4 cc _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 birch birch NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 rustled rustle VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 6 nmod:poss _ _ 6 leaves leaf NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 10 : : PUNCT : _ 14 punct _ _ 11 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 14 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 12 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 13 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 14 aux _ _ 14 served serve VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 9 ccomp _ _ 15 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 14 obj _ _ 16 longer long ADV RBR Degree=Cmp 14 advmod _ _ 17 than than SCONJ IN _ 20 mark _ _ 18 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 19 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 20 aux _ _ 20 say say VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 16 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 25 cc _ _ 23 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 24 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 25 advmod _ _ 25 tied tie VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 conj _ _ 26 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 bit bit NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ _ 28 of of ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 29 twine twine NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nmod _ _ 30 even even ADV RB _ 33 advmod _ _ 31 round round ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 33 nmod:poss _ _ 33 branches branch NOUN NNS Number=Plur 25 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 34 ; ; PUNCT : _ 39 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 37 dear dear ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 38 amod _ _ 38 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 39 nsubj _ _ 39 bound bound VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 40 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 obj _ _ 41 up up ADP RP _ 39 compound:prt _ _ 42 with with ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 43 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 45 nmod:poss _ _ 44 brightest bright ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 45 amod _ _ 45 ribbons ribbon NOUN NNS Number=Plur 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 46 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 47 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **rustle** | past | the birch | birch's leaves | | | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location leaf=Theme | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the birch *not said here* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 3 | **serve** | present · perfect | I | you | | | | long *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Attribute | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | can | I | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **not** **tie** | past | you | a bit of twine | | | | | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent bit=Patient branch=Result | | 6 | **bound up** | present | the dear children | branches *= branch* | | | | with children's brightest ribbons | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location they=Theme | 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 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/66/) - next →: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/68/) - ↑ back to [The Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/)