---
title: It was a pie made of six birds, cooked to perfection, and yet they w… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a pie made of six birds, cooked to perfection, and yet they were all alive, and singing and talking, and they answered questions and told fortunes in the most amusing way. Who acts: chance, things. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 4, with its dependency
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Blue Bird, part 4, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a pie made of six birds, cooked to perfection, and yet they were all alive, and singing and talking, and they answered questions and told fortunes in the most amusing way.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** chance, things · **What happens:** be, make, cook, sing, talk, answer · **To what, where:** pie, six birds, questions, fortunes, amusing way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chance, things), 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:pg7277:5:39
# text = It was a pie made of six birds, cooked to perfection, and yet they were all alive, and singing and talking, and they answered questions and told fortunes in the most amusing way.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	pie	pie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	cooked	cook	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	perfection	perfection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	all	all	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
29	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
32	fortunes	fortune	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	iobj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	36	advmod	_	_
36	amusing	amusing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | chance | a pie |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | participle |  | a pie *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **cook** | participle |  | six birds *not said here* |  |  |  | to perfection *result* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient to perfection=Result |
| 4 | **is** | past | things *= thing* |  |  |  | yet | alive, all *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | things *= thing* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **talk** | gerund | things *= thing* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | things *= thing* | questions |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent question=Eventuality |
| 8 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | things *= thing* *not said here* |  | fortunes | the amusing way |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent fortune=Recipient |

<!-- .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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