---
title: The whole town was talking about the wonderful bird, and when two pe… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The whole town was talking about the wonderful bird, and when two people met each other one would say ‘Nightin,’ and the other ‘Gale,’ and then they would both sigh and understand one another. Who acts: whole town, two people, people. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nightin
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Nightingale, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The whole town was talking about the wonderful bird, and when two people met each other one would say ‘Nightin,’ and the other ‘Gale,’ and then they would both sigh and understand one another.

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**Who acts:** whole town, two people, people · **What happens:** talk, meet, say, sigh, understand · **To what, where:** other one, Nightin, one · **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 (whole town, two people, people), 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:pg640:48:98
# text = The whole town was talking about the wonderful bird, and when two people met each other one would say ‘Nightin,’ and the other ‘Gale,’ and then they would both sigh and understand one another.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	15	mark	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
16	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Nightin	Nightin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	Gale	Gale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
33	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	37	advmod	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	both	both	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	sigh	sigh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	conj	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	obj	_	_
41	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	40	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · progressive | the whole town |  |  |  |  | about the wonderful bird | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about bird=Topic |
| 2 | **meet** | past | two people | each other one |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | would |  | Nightin and other Gale |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sigh** | would | people |  |  |  | then | both *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **understand** | infinitive | people *not said here* | one |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer one=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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