---
title: The storks were fast asleep, and he climbed on to the back of the fa… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The storks were fast asleep, and he climbed on to the back of the father-stork and bound a silk cord round the joint of one of its wings, then he crept among its soft downy feathers and fell asleep. Who acts: storks, man. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Hazel-nut Child (29)
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/40/37/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Hazel-nut Child (29)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/40/) / 37

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Hazel-nut Child (29), sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The storks were fast asleep, and he climbed on to the back of the father-stork and bound a silk cord round the joint of one of its wings, then he crept among its soft downy feathers and fell asleep.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** storks, man · **What happens:** be, climb, bind, creep, fall · **To what, where:** back, silk cord, soft downy feathers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Hazel-nut Child (29). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (storks, man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:40:37
# text = The storks were fast asleep, and he climbed on to the back of the father-stork and bound a silk cord round the joint of one of its wings, then he crept among its soft downy feathers and fell asleep.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	storks	stork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
10	on	on	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	stork	stork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	bound	bind	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	round	round	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	joint	joint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nmod	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	35	advmod	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
36	among	among	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
38	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
39	downy	downy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	_
43	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the storks |  |  |  |  | asleep, fast *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **climb** | past | man |  |  | the back of the father stork |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to back=Destination |
| 3 | **bind** | past | man *not said here* | a silk cord |  |  |  | round the joint of one of joint's wings | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cord=Patient |
| 4 | **creep** | past | man |  |  | joint's soft downy feathers | then |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among feather=Trajectory |
| 5 | **fall** | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/40/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/40/38/)
- ↑ back to [The Hazel-nut Child (29)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/40/)