---
title: “The very thing!” said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows mak… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “The very thing!” said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day. Who acts: thing, sparrows. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Magpie's Nest, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Magpie's Nest, sentence 12

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“The very thing!” said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day.

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**Who acts:** thing, sparrows · **What happens:** say, go, make · **To what, where:** sparrow, slovenly nests · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Magpie's Nest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing, sparrows), 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:pg7439:42:12
# text = “The very thing!” said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	slovenly	slovenly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	det	_	_
24	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the thing | the sparrow |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sparrow=Topic |
| 2 | **go** | past | thing |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | present | sparrows | slovenly nests |  |  | day |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset nest=Product |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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