---
title: Quick as they were they were too late, for the mink was already thro… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Quick as they were they were too late, for the mink was already through the knot-hole and racing for his canoe. Who acts: Mink. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/34/61/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 34, sentence 61

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Quick as they were they were too late, for the mink was already through the knot-hole and racing for his canoe.

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**Who acts:** Mink · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** knot hole

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mink), 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:pg3027:34:61
# text = Quick as they were they were too late, for the mink was already through the knot-hole and racing for his canoe.
1	Quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mink	mink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
14	already	already	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	racing	racing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Mink |  |  |  |  | late *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Mink *not said here* |  |  | the knot hole and racing |  | for the mink; for Wolf's canoe | tree rules |

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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:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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