---
title: So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests, but, none of them waiting to the end. Who acts: sparrow, bird, none. 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 15

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So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests, but, none of them waiting to the end.

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**Who acts:** sparrow, bird, none · **What happens:** go on, take away, build, wait · **To what, where:** knowledge, nests

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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 (sparrow, bird, none), 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:pg7439:42:15
# text = So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests, but, none of them waiting to the end.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	away	away	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	det	_	_
11	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
16	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	23	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	_
23	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past | sparrow |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **take away** | gerund | every bird | some knowledge |  |  |  | away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knowledge=Theme |
| 3 | **build** | to-infinitive | every bird *not said here* | nests |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset nest=Product |
| 4 | **wait** | gerund | none |  |  |  | to the end |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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