---
title: I’m thankful that none of my little children are; birds always starv… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I’m thankful that none of my little children are; birds always starve in winter.’ Who acts: I, none, birds. 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 every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 160

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I’m thankful that none of my little children are; birds always starve in winter.’

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**Who acts:** I, none, birds · **What happens:** be, starve

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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 (I, none, birds), 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:pg640:47:160
# text = I’m thankful that none of my little children are; birds always starve in winter.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’m	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	thankful	thankful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
10	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	14	advmod	_	_
14	starve	starve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | I |  |  |  |  | thankful *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | present | none |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **starve** | present | birds |  |  |  | winter | always *property* | tree rules |

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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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