---
title: He nodded his head every moment, for he liked reading the brilliant… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He nodded his head every moment, for he liked reading the brilliant accounts of the town, the Palace, and the garden. Who acts: gardener. 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 18

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He nodded his head every moment, for he liked reading the brilliant accounts of the town, the Palace, and the garden.

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**Who acts:** gardener · **What happens:** nod, like, read, account · **To what, where:** head, brilliant accounts, town

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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 (gardener), 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:pg640:48:18
# text = He nodded his head every moment, for he liked reading the brilliant accounts of the town, the Palace, and the garden.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
11	reading	read	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	brilliant	brilliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	accounts	account	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Palace	Palace	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **nod** | past | gardener | gardener's head |  |  | moment |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **like** | past | gardener |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **read** | gerund | gardener *not said here* | the brilliant accounts of the town |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent account=Topic |
| 4 | **account** |  |  | the town |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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