---
title: They hopped about from one tree to another looking for food, all day… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They hopped about from one tree to another looking for food, all day long until the evening, when they went back to their old perch to sleep. Who acts: birds, another. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/5/43/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 43

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They hopped about from one tree to another looking for food, all day long until the evening, when they went back to their old perch to sleep.

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**Who acts:** birds, another · **What happens:** hop about, look, go back, sleep · **To what, where:** one tree, food

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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 (birds, another), 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:pg640:5:43
# text = They hopped about from one tree to another looking for food, all day long until the evening, when they went back to their old perch to sleep.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	hopped	hop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	about	about	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	9	nsubj	_	_
9	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
16	until	until	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
23	back	back	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	perch	perch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hop about** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  | one tree |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from tree=Trajectory |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | another | food |  |  | evening |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme food=Attribute |
| 3 | **go back** | past | birds *= bird* |  |  |  |  | to birds's old perch *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to perch=Result |
| 4 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | birds *= bird* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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