---
title: And the youth answered, ‘The dates have all been eaten by some bird:… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the youth answered, ‘The dates have all been eaten by some bird: there is not one left.’ Who acts: youth, bird, one. 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 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the youth answered, ‘The dates have all been eaten by some bird: there is not one left.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** youth, bird, one · **What happens:** answer, eat, be, leave · **To what, where:** dates · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (youth, bird, one), 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:pg641:29:28
# text = And the youth answered, ‘The dates have all been eaten by some bird: there is not one left.’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	all	all	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nsubj	_	_
21	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the youth |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | present · perfect · passive | some bird | the dates |  |  |  | all *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 3 | **be** | present | some bird *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **leave** | participle | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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