---
title: ‘How much the bird reminds me of the musical snuff-box of the late E… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘How much the bird reminds me of the musical snuff-box of the late Empress!’ said an old courtier. Who acts: much bird, old courtier. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Swineherd, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Swineherd, sentence 25

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‘How much the bird reminds me of the musical snuff-box of the late Empress!’ said an old courtier.

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**Who acts:** much bird, old courtier · **What happens:** remind, say · **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 Swineherd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (much bird, old courtier), 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:pg640:43:25
# text = ‘How much the bird reminds me of the musical snuff-box of the late Empress!’ said an old courtier.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
3	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	reminds	remind	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	musical	musical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
11	snuff	snuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	Empress	Empress	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	courtier	courtier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remind** *speech: other* | present | the much bird |  | me |  |  | of the musical snuff box of the late Empress | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient PP.topic»: agent=Agent i=Recipient of box=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a old courtier |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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