---
title: Before they ceased to sound, came a great flight of birds, and each… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before they ceased to sound, came a great flight of birds, and each one perching upon a bell added its charming song to the concert. Who acts: bells, great flight, one, flight. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before they ceased to sound, came a great flight of birds, and each one perching upon a bell added its charming song to the concert.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bells, great flight, one, flight · **What happens:** cease, sound, come, perch, add, sing · **To what, where:** bell, one

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bells, great flight, one, flight), 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:pg7277:38:46
# text = Before they ceased to sound, came a great flight of birds, and each one perching upon a bell added its charming song to the concert.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ceased	cease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	sound	sound	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	perching	perch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	bell	bell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	added	add	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	charming	charming	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	concert	concert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cease** | past | bells *= bell* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **sound** | to-infinitive | bells *= bell* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | past | a great flight of birds |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **perch** | gerund | each one *not said here* |  |  | a bell |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon bell=Location |
| 5 | **add** *speech: assert* | participle · passive |  | each one |  |  |  | to the concert | tree rules |
| 6 | **sing** |  | flight |  |  |  |  |  | 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 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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