---
title: All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach t… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests. Who acts: birds. 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 2

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All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests.

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**Who acts:** birds · **What happens:** come, ask, teach, build · **To what, where:** magpie, birds, 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 (birds), 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:pg7439:42:2
# text = All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	3	det:predet	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	magpie	magpie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	19	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
20	nests	nest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | all birds of the air |  |  |  |  | to the magpie | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to magpie=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | all birds of the air *not said here* |  | magpie |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | all birds of the air *not said here* |  | birds *= bird* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **build** | to-infinitive | all birds of the air *not said here* | nests |  |  |  |  | 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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