---
title: When it was wound up, it could sing the piece the real bird sang, an… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When it was wound up, it could sing the piece the real bird sang, and moved its tail up and down, and glittered with silver and gold. Who acts: parcel, real bird. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 103

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When it was wound up, it could sing the piece the real bird sang, and moved its tail up and down, and glittered with silver and gold.

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**Who acts:** parcel, real bird · **What happens:** woun up, sing, move, glitter · **To what, where:** parcel, piece, tail

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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, real bird), 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:pg640:48:103
# text = When it was wound up, it could sing the piece the real bird sang, and moved its tail up and down, and glittered with silver and gold.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	wound	woun	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
19	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	up	up	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	down	down	ADV	RB	_	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	glittered	glitter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **woun up** | past · passive |  | parcel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* | could | parcel | the piece |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location piece=Theme |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the real bird | the piece *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location piece=Theme |
| 4 | **move** | past | parcel *not said here* | parcel's tail |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent tail=Theme |
| 5 | **glitter** | participle | parcel *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with silver and gold | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with silver=Theme |

<!-- .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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