---
title: It looked about at first without seeing him, and whispering to itsel… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It looked about at first without seeing him, and whispering to itself, ‘There is no one here,’ fluttered lightly on to the tree and stretched out his beak for the dates. Who acts: It, one. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It looked about at first without seeing him, and whispering to itself, ‘There is no one here,’ fluttered lightly on to the tree and stretched out his beak for the dates.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, one · **What happens:** look, see, whisper, be, flutter, stretch out · **To what, where:** boy, corn, beak

<!-- .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 (It, 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:pg641:29:96
# text = It looked about at first without seeing him, and whispering to itself, ‘There is no one here,’ fluttered lightly on to the tree and stretched out his beak for the dates.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	about	about	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	2	obl	_	_
6	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
11	whispering	whisper	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
20	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
23	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
24	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	on	on	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | It |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at first=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | gerund |  | boy |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  | corn |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to itself=Recipient |
| 4 | **be** | present | no one |  |  | here; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **flutter** | past |  |  |  |  |  | to the tree | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **stretch out** | participle |  | boy's beak |  |  |  | for the dates | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent beak=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 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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