---
title: But the poor fishermen who had heard the real Nightingale said: ‘Thi… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the poor fishermen who had heard the real Nightingale said: ‘This one sings well enough, the tunes glide out; but there is something wanting--I don’t know what!’ Who acts: poor fishermen, one, tunes, I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightingale, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 124

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the poor fishermen who had heard the real Nightingale said: ‘This one sings well enough, the tunes glide out; but there is something wanting--I don’t know what!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor fishermen, one, tunes, I · **What happens:** hear, say, sing, glide out, want, not know · **To what, where:** real Nightingale · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (poor fishermen, one, tunes, I), 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:pg640:48:124
# text = But the poor fishermen who had heard the real Nightingale said: ‘This one sings well enough, the tunes glide out; but there is something wanting--I don’t know what!’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	fishermen	fisherman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sings	sing	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
18	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tunes	tune	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	glide	glide	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
23	out	out	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	27	expl	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	27	nsubj	_	_
29	wanting	want	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
35	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past · perfect | the poor fishermen | the real Nightingale |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer nightingale=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the poor fishermen |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | present | this one |  |  |  |  | enough, well *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **glide out** | present | the tunes |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **want** | present · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 6 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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