---
title: “That is not a bird singing, that is a cow mooing,” said the little… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “That is not a bird singing, that is a cow mooing,” said the little kitchen maid. Who acts: That, bird, cow, little kitchen maid. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 1, sentence 132

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“That is not a bird singing, that is a cow mooing,” said the little kitchen maid.

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**Who acts:** That, bird, cow, little kitchen maid · **What happens:** not be, sing, be, moo, say · **To what, where:** bird, cow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, bird, cow, little kitchen maid), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:1:140
# text = “That is not a bird singing, that is a cow mooing,” said the little kitchen maid.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
7	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
13	mooing	moo	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present | That | a bird |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | gerund | a bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | a cow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **moo** *in a quote* | gerund | a cow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the little kitchen maid |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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 Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Project Gutenberg book 65965 (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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