---
title: So they called a meeting of all the birds of the forest, told them w… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: So they called a meeting of all the birds of the forest, told them what had happened, and the poor old Vulture was sentenced to death, and accordingly was executed.” Who acts: birds. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 7, with its
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 7, sentence 108

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So they called a meeting of all the birds of the forest, told them what had happened, and the poor old Vulture was sentenced to death, and accordingly was executed.”

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**Who acts:** birds · **What happens:** call, tell, happen, sentence, execute · **To what, where:** meeting, birds, poor old Vulture · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (birds), 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:pg65965:7:110
# text = So they called a meeting of all the birds of the forest, told them what had happened, and the poor old Vulture was sentenced to death, and accordingly was executed.”
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	meeting	meeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	Vulture	Vulture	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	sentenced	sentence	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	accordingly	accordingly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	executed	execute	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | birds *= bird* | a meeting of all birds of the forest |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent meeting=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | birds *= bird* *not said here* |  | birds *= bird* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sentence** | past · passive |  | the poor old Vulture |  |  |  | to death | tree rules |
| 5 | **execute** | past · passive | birds *= bird* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | accordingly *property* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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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