---
title: A few minutes went by, and a bird flew down from a neighbouring thic… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A few minutes went by, and a bird flew down from a neighbouring thicket, and ate all the dates, without leaving a single one. Who acts: few minutes, bird. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A few minutes went by, and a bird flew down from a neighbouring thicket, and ate all the dates, without leaving a single one.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** few minutes, bird · **What happens:** go by, fly down, neighbour, eat, leave · **To what, where:** neighbouring thicket, dates, single one

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (few minutes, bird), 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:pg641:29:14
# text = A few minutes went by, and a bird flew down from a neighbouring thicket, and ate all the dates, without leaving a single one.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	neighbouring	neighbour	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	amod	_	_
15	thicket	thicket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
19	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	21	det:predet	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go by** | past | a few minutes |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fly down** | past | a bird |  |  | a neighbouring thicket |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from thicket=Trajectory |
| 3 | **neighbour** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | past | a few minutes *not said here* | all dates |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent date=Patient |
| 5 | **leave** | gerund | a few minutes *not said here* | a single one |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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