---
title: Not a breath of wind moved, not a leaf stirred, all was silent as th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Not a breath of wind moved, not a leaf stirred, all was silent as the grave, only on the still bosom of the lake thirty ducks, with brilliant plumage, swam about in the water. Who acts: breath, leaf, all. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2, with its dependency
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Not a breath of wind moved, not a leaf stirred, all was silent as the grave, only on the still bosom of the lake thirty ducks, with brilliant plumage, swam about in the water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** breath, leaf, all · **What happens:** move, not stir, be, swim, bosom · **To what, where:** bosom, water, lake

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (breath, leaf, all), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7277:27:54
# text = Not a breath of wind moved, not a leaf stirred, all was silent as the grave, only on the still bosom of the lake thirty ducks, with brilliant plumage, swam about in the water.
1	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	stirred	stir	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	still	still	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	bosom	bosom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	brilliant	brilliant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
36	about	about	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **move** | past | a breath of wind |  |  | the bosom of the lake  thirty ducks and brilliant plumage |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme on bosom=Trajectory |
| 2 | **not** **stir** | participle | a leaf |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past | all |  |  |  |  | as the grave; silent *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **swim** | past | a breath of wind *not said here* |  |  | the water |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in water=Trajectory |
| 5 | **bosom** |  |  | the lake  thirty ducks and brilliant plumage |  |  |  |  | nom bosom «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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