---
title: Round its neck was a little collar on which was written, ‘The Nighti… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Round its neck was a little collar on which was written, ‘The Nightingale of the Emperor of Japan is nothing compared to that of the Emperor of China.’ Who acts: Nightingale. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/48/104/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 104

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Round its neck was a little collar on which was written, ‘The Nightingale of the Emperor of Japan is nothing compared to that of the Emperor of China.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nightingale · **What happens:** be, write, compare · **To what, where:** little collar, nothing

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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 (Nightingale), 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:pg640:48:104
# text = Round its neck was a little collar on which was written, ‘The Nightingale of the Emperor of Japan is nothing compared to that of the Emperor of China.’
1	Round	round	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obl	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Japan	Japan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	7	conj	_	_
23	compared	compare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a little collar |  |  |  | round gold's neck | tree rules |
| 2 | **write** | past · passive |  |  |  | a little collar |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: on which=Destination |
| 3 | **is a** | present | the Nightingale of the Emperor of Japan | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **compare** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | of the Emperor of China | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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