---
title: The moment the crows ate what was thrown to them they fell down dead. — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The moment the crows ate what was thrown to them they fell down dead. Who acts: moment, crows. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22, sentence 71

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The moment the crows ate what was thrown to them they fell down dead.

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**Who acts:** moment, crows · **What happens:** eat, throw, fall down · **To what, where:** crows

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moment, crows), 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:pg7128:28:71
# text = The moment the crows ate what was thrown to them they fell down dead.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	down	down	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past | the moment |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **throw** | past · passive |  |  | crows *= crow* |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme to they=Destination |
| 3 | **fall down** | past | crows *= crow* |  |  |  |  | dead, down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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:** «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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