---
title: The bird turned and flew quickly away, but the boy never let go, not… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The bird turned and flew quickly away, but the boy never let go, not even when they soared high into the air. Who acts: bird, boy, bunches. 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 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The bird turned and flew quickly away, but the boy never let go, not even when they soared high into the air.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bird, boy, bunches · **What happens:** turn, fly, not let, go, not soar · **To what, where:** air

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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 (bird, boy, bunches), 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:pg641:29:98
# text = The bird turned and flew quickly away, but the boy never let go, not even when they soared high into the air.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	away	away	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
17	even	even	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	soared	soar	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	high	high	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
22	into	into	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | the bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fly** | past | the bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **let** | infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **go** | infinitive | the boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **soar** | past | bunches *= bunch* |  |  | the air |  | high *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into air=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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