---
title: But it was not a book, but a little mechanical toy, which lay in a b… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was not a book, but a little mechanical toy, which lay in a box--an artificial nightingale which was like the real one, only that it was set all over with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. Who acts: parcel, little mechanical toy, artificial nightingale, real one. A sentence of «The Yellow Fair
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 102

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it was not a book, but a little mechanical toy, which lay in a box--an artificial nightingale which was like the real one, only that it was set all over with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** parcel, little mechanical toy, artificial nightingale, real one · **What happens:** not be, lie, be, set · **To what, where:** book, box, parcel

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (parcel, little mechanical toy, artificial nightingale, real one), 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:pg640:48:102
# text = But it was not a book, but a little mechanical toy, which lay in a box--an artificial nightingale which was like the real one, only that it was set all over with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	mechanical	mechanical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	toy	toy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	artificial	artificial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	nightingale	nightingale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
35	all	all	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	over	over	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	rubies	ruby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	sapphires	sapphire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | parcel | a book |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | past | a little mechanical toy |  |  | a box and a artificial nightingale |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in box=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | a artificial nightingale |  |  |  |  | like the real one | tree rules |
| 4 | **set** | past · passive | the real one *not said here* | parcel |  |  |  | with diamonds and rubies and sapphires; over *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: subject=Patient with diamond=Instrument |

<!-- .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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