---
title: It darted towards a hole, but before it could reach it Simon sprang… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It darted towards a hole, but before it could reach it Simon sprang upon it more swiftly than any cat, and then the little mouse turned once more into the beautiful Princess Helena. Who acts: swan, Simon, little mouse. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, pa
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 110

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It darted towards a hole, but before it could reach it Simon sprang upon it more swiftly than any cat, and then the little mouse turned once more into the beautiful Princess Helena.

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**Who acts:** swan, Simon, little mouse · **What happens:** dart, reach, spring, turn · **To what, where:** hole, swan, beautiful Princess Helena

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swan, Simon, little mouse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2435:5:110
# text = It darted towards a hole, but before it could reach it Simon sprang upon it more swiftly than any cat, and then the little mouse turned once more into the beautiful Princess Helena.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	darted	dart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
8	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	Simon	Simon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
18	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
19	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
21	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
29	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	30	advmod	_	_
30	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	28	advmod	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
33	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	Helena	Helena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dart** | past | swan |  |  | a hole |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards hole=Destination |
| 2 | **reach** | could | swan | hole |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **spring** | past | Simon |  |  | swan |  | swiftly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon it=Trajectory |
| 4 | **turn** | past | the little mouse |  |  |  | then | into the beautiful Princess Helena *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into helena=Result |

<!-- .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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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