---
title: From the lofty ceiling rare birds warbled their delicious melodies i… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: From the lofty ceiling rare birds warbled their delicious melodies in golden cages, and a grey parrot sat on his perch and pecked with his crooked bill the golden wires of his hated cage. Who acts: rare birds, grey parrot, parrot. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lau
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 14, sentence 80

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From the lofty ceiling rare birds warbled their delicious melodies in golden cages, and a grey parrot sat on his perch and pecked with his crooked bill the golden wires of his hated cage.

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**Who acts:** rare birds, grey parrot, parrot · **What happens:** warble, sit, peck, hate, bill · **To what, where:** delicious melodies, lofty ceiling, perch

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rare birds, grey parrot, parrot), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74323:15:80
# text = From the lofty ceiling rare birds warbled their delicious melodies in golden cages, and a grey parrot sat on his perch and pecked with his crooked bill the golden wires of his hated cage.
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	lofty	lofty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	ceiling	ceiling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	rare	rare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	warbled	warble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	melodies	melody	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	cages	cage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	parrot	parrot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	perch	perch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	pecked	peck	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	crooked	crooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	bill	bill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	wires	wire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	appos	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	hated	hate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	amod	_	_
35	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **warble** | past | rare birds | birds's delicious melodies |  | the lofty ceiling |  | in golden cages | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent melody=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | past | a grey parrot |  |  | parrot's perch |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on perch=Location |
| 3 | **peck** | participle | a grey parrot *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with parrot's crooked bill | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent with bill=Instrument |
| 4 | **hate** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **bill** |  | parrot |  |  |  |  |  | nom bill «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Project Gutenberg book 74323 (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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