---
title: At the same moment three ravens flew down to him, perched on his kne… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the same moment three ravens flew down to him, perched on his knee and said, ‘We are the three young ravens whom you saved from starvation. Who acts: three ravens, We, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the same moment three ravens flew down to him, perched on his knee and said, ‘We are the three young ravens whom you saved from starvation.

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**Who acts:** three ravens, We, you · **What happens:** fly down, perch, say, be, save · **To what, where:** tree, knee, three young ravens, starvation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three ravens, We, you), 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:pg7277:50:59
# text = At the same moment three ravens flew down to him, perched on his knee and said, ‘We are the three young ravens whom you saved from starvation.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	ravens	raven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	down	down	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
21	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
24	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	ravens	raven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	ccomp	_	_
26	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	obj	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	saved	save	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	starvation	starvation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly down** | past | three ravens |  | tree |  | moment | down *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to he=Result |
| 2 | **perch** | participle | three ravens *not said here* |  |  | tree's knee |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on knee=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | three ravens *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | present | We | the three young ravens |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **save** | past | you | the three young ravens |  | starvation |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent whom=Theme from starvation=Source |

<!-- .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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