---
title: Then the magician brewed a powerful potion out of nine sorts of herb… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the magician brewed a powerful potion out of nine sorts of herbs which he had gathered himself all alone by moonlight, and he gave the youth nine spoonfuls of it daily for three days, which made him able to understand the language of birds. Who acts: magician, moonlight, three days. A sentence 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the magician brewed a powerful potion out of nine sorts of herbs which he had gathered himself all alone by moonlight, and he gave the youth nine spoonfuls of it daily for three days, which made him able to understand the language of birds.

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**Who acts:** magician, moonlight, three days · **What happens:** brew, gather, give, make, understand, sort · **To what, where:** powerful potion, nine sorts, herbs, youth, magician, language

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (magician, moonlight, three days), 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:pg640:5:21
# text = Then the magician brewed a powerful potion out of nine sorts of herbs which he had gathered himself all alone by moonlight, and he gave the youth nine spoonfuls of it daily for three days, which made him able to understand the language of birds.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	brewed	brew	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	powerful	powerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	potion	potion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	herbs	herb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	gathered	gather	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	all	all	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	spoonfuls	spoonful	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nmod	_	_
33	daily	daily	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	36	nummod	_	_
36	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
39	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	acl:relcl	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	xcomp	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **brew** | past | the magician | a powerful potion |  | nine sorts of herbs | then |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent potion=Product |
| 2 | **gather** | past · perfect · passive | moonlight | herbs |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent subject=Beneficiary himself=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past | magician | the youth |  |  | day | daily *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent youth=Recipient spoonful=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | past | three days | magician |  |  |  | able *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset he=Product |
| 5 | **understand** | to-infinitive | magician *not said here* | the language of birds |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |
| 6 | **sort** |  |  | herbs |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=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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