---
title: They sang together, but it did not sound well, for the real Nighting… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: They sang together, but it did not sound well, for the real Nightingale sang her own song, and the clock-work bird sang waltzes. Who acts: BIRDS, title, real Nightingale, work bird. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1, with its 
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 1, sentence 171

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They sang together, but it did not sound well, for the real Nightingale sang her own song, and the clock-work bird sang waltzes.

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**Who acts:** BIRDS, title, real Nightingale, work bird, China · **What happens:** sing, not sound · **To what, where:** own song, waltzes

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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 (BIRDS, title, real Nightingale, work bird), 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:pg65965:1:179
# text = They sang together, but it did not sound well, for the real Nightingale sang her own song, and the clock-work bird sang waltzes.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	together	together	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	sound	sound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	parataxis	_	_
10	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Nightingale	Nightingale	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
23	clock	clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
28	waltzes	waltz	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | BIRDS *= bird* |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **sound** | past · do-support | title |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the real Nightingale | China's own song |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the work bird | waltzes |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location waltz=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** |  | China |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 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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