---
title: He sat down at the foot of the tree upon which the birds were perche… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He sat down at the foot of the tree upon which the birds were perched, and listened attentively to what they were saying to each other. Who acts: length, birds. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 49

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He sat down at the foot of the tree upon which the birds were perched, and listened attentively to what they were saying to each other.

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**Who acts:** length, birds · **What happens:** sit down, perch, listen, say · **To what, where:** foot, birds, tree, each · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (length, birds), 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:pg640:5:49
# text = He sat down at the foot of the tree upon which the birds were perched, and listened attentively to what they were saying to each other.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	obl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	attentively	attentively	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	24	obl	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | length |  |  | the foot of the tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at foot=Location |
| 2 | **perch** | past · passive |  | the birds |  | the tree |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme upon which=Destination |
| 3 | **listen** | past | length *not said here* |  |  |  |  | attentively *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to what=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | birds *= bird* |  | each |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient |

<!-- .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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