---
title: "I shot an arrow at a bird that was sitting on the sill of an open w… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "I shot an arrow at a bird that was sitting on the sill of an open window in yonder house, and missed," answered the prince. " Who acts: prince, bird. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I shot an arrow at a bird that was sitting on the sill of an open window in yonder house, and missed," answered the prince. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, bird · **What happens:** shoot, sit, miss, answer · **To what, where:** arrow, sill · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, bird), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7128:27:36
# text = "I shot an arrow at a bird that was sitting on the sill of an open window in yonder house, and missed," answered the prince. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	shot	shoot	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	arrow	arrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sill	sill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	yonder	yonder	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
27	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shoot** *in a quote* | past | the prince *= prince* | a arrow |  |  |  | at a bird | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent arrow=Theme at bird=Destination |
| 2 | **sit** *in a quote* | past · progressive | a bird |  |  | the sill of a open window in house |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on sill=Location |
| 3 | **miss** *in a quote* | past | the prince *= prince* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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