---
title: This time the fairy baby was playing with a birdie; Kate heard one o… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: This time the fairy baby was playing with a birdie; Kate heard one of the fairies say: “Three bites of that birdie would make the sick prince as well as ever he was.” Who acts: fairy baby, Kate, time, Three bites. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Kate Crackernuts, with its depen
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Kate Crackernuts, sentence 49

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This time the fairy baby was playing with a birdie; Kate heard one of the fairies say: “Three bites of that birdie would make the sick prince as well as ever he was.”

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**Who acts:** fairy baby, Kate, time, Three bites, baby · **What happens:** play, hear, say, make, be, bite · **To what, where:** time, one, sick prince, birdie · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Kate Crackernuts. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fairy baby, Kate, time, Three bites), 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:pg7439:43:49
# text = This time the fairy baby was playing with a birdie; Kate heard one of the fairies say: “Three bites of that birdie would make the sick prince as well as ever he was.”
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	fairy	fairy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	birdie	birdie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	Kate	Kate	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
18	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	bites	bite	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	birdie	birdie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	36	cc	_	_
32	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	fixed	_	_
33	as	as	ADP	IN	_	31	fixed	_	_
34	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	36	advmod	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | the fairy baby | this time *not said here* |  |  |  | with a birdie | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent time=Theme with birdie=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past | Kate | one of the fairies |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | this time |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | would | Three bites of that birdie | the sick prince |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset prince=Product |
| 5 | **be** *in a quote* | past | baby |  |  |  | ever |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **bite** *in a quote* |  |  | that birdie |  |  |  |  | nom bite «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «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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