---
title: Luckily for himself the duckling could not fly, and he floundered al… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Luckily for himself the duckling could not fly, and he floundered along through the water till he could hide himself amidst some tall ferns which grew in a hollow. Who acts: duckling, firing, tall ferns. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 39

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Luckily for himself the duckling could not fly, and he floundered along through the water till he could hide himself amidst some tall ferns which grew in a hollow.

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**Who acts:** duckling, firing, tall ferns · **What happens:** not fly, flounder, hide, grow · **To what, where:** water, firing, hollow

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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 (duckling, firing, tall ferns), 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:pg3027:9:39
# text = Luckily for himself the duckling could not fly, and he floundered along through the water till he could hide himself amidst some tall ferns which grew in a hollow.
1	Luckily	luckily	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
2	for	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	1	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	duckling	duckling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	floundered	flounder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	along	along	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
21	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obj	_	_
22	amidst	amidst	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
24	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	ferns	fern	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
27	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hollow	hollow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **fly** | could | the duckling |  |  |  |  | luckily *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **flounder** | past | firing |  |  | the water |  | along *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **hide** | could | firing | firing |  |  |  | amidst some tall ferns | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 4 | **grow** | past | some tall ferns |  |  | a hollow |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hollow=Location |

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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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