---
title: After he had learned to understand the language of birds and beasts,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After he had learned to understand the language of birds and beasts, he discovered accidentally that a great deal took place under cover of night which mortal eyes never saw. Who acts: he, great deal, mortal eyes. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After he had learned to understand the language of birds and beasts, he discovered accidentally that a great deal took place under cover of night which mortal eyes never saw.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** he, great deal, mortal eyes · **What happens:** learn, understand, discover, take, not see · **To what, where:** language, place, cover

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (he, great deal, mortal eyes), 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:pg641:34:2
# text = After he had learned to understand the language of birds and beasts, he discovered accidentally that a great deal took place under cover of night which mortal eyes never saw.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	accidentally	accidentally	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
22	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	under	under	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obj	_	_
28	mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
30	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | past · perfect | he |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **understand** | to-infinitive | he *not said here* | the language of birds and beasts |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer language=Stimulus |
| 3 | **discover** | past | he |  |  |  |  | accidentally *property* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V PP.topic S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **take** | past | a great deal | place |  | cover of night |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **see** | past | mortal eyes | cover of night |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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