---
title: At the sound of the gun the wild ducks in the rushes flew into the a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the sound of the gun the wild ducks in the rushes flew into the air, and for a few minutes the firing continued. Who acts: wild ducks, firing. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 38

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At the sound of the gun the wild ducks in the rushes flew into the air, and for a few minutes the firing continued.

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**Who acts:** wild ducks, firing · **What happens:** fly, continue · **To what, where:** sound

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wild ducks, firing), 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:pg3027:9:38
# text = At the sound of the gun the wild ducks in the rushes flew into the air, and for a few minutes the firing continued.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	gun	gun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	wild	wild	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	rushes	rush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	firing	firing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the wild ducks in the rushes |  |  | the sound of the gun |  | into the air | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent at sound=Location |
| 2 | **continue** | past | the firing |  |  |  | minute |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 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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