---
title: In the middle of the path lay a dead swallow, his pretty wings press… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the path lay a dead swallow, his pretty wings pressed close to his sides, his claws and head drawn under his feathers; the poor bird had evidently died of cold. Who acts: poor bird. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its depen
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 155

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the middle of the path lay a dead swallow, his pretty wings pressed close to his sides, his claws and head drawn under his feathers; the poor bird had evidently died of cold.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor bird · **What happens:** lie, press, draw, die · **To what, where:** dead swallow, middle, pretty wings, head, feathers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor bird), 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:pg640:47:155
# text = In the middle of the path lay a dead swallow, his pretty wings pressed close to his sides, his claws and head drawn under his feathers; the poor bird had evidently died of cold.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	swallow	swallow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	appos	_	_
15	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
25	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	under	under	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	evidently	evidently	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past |  | a dead swallow and mole's claws and head |  | the middle of the path |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location swallow=Theme |
| 2 | **press** | participle |  | mole's pretty wings *not said here* |  |  |  | close *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **draw** | participle |  | head *not said here* |  | mole's feathers |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **die** | past · perfect | the poor bird |  |  |  |  | of cold; evidently *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of cold=Causer |

<!-- .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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