---
title: Thumbelina was very sorry, for she was very fond of all little birds… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thumbelina was very sorry, for she was very fond of all little birds; they had sung and twittered so beautifully to her all through the summer. Who acts: Thumbelina. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 156

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thumbelina was very sorry, for she was very fond of all little birds; they had sung and twittered so beautifully to her all through the summer.

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**Who acts:** Thumbelina · **What happens:** be, sing, twitter · **To what, where:** birds, THUMBELINA

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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 (Thumbelina), 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:pg640:47:156
# text = Thumbelina was very sorry, for she was very fond of all little birds; they had sung and twittered so beautifully to her all through the summer.
1	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	sung	sing	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	twittered	twitter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	beautifully	beautifully	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
25	all	all	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	through	through	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Thumbelina |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | THUMBELINA |  |  |  |  | of all little birds; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | past · perfect · passive |  | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **twitter** | past |  |  | THUMBELINA |  | summer | beautifully *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient |

<!-- .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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