---
title: The sun was setting one day, like a great scarlet globe, and the riv… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The sun was setting one day, like a great scarlet globe, and the river, to the duckling's vast bewilderment, was getting hard and slippery, when he heard a sound of whirring wings, and high up in the air a flock of swans were flying. Who acts: sun, spite, flock, duckling. A sentence of «The Orange F
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 82

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The sun was setting one day, like a great scarlet globe, and the river, to the duckling's vast bewilderment, was getting hard and slippery, when he heard a sound of whirring wings, and high up in the air a flock of swans were flying.

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**Who acts:** sun, spite, flock, duckling · **What happens:** set, get, hear, whir, fly, bewilder · **To what, where:** sound, air

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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 (sun, spite, flock, duckling), 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:pg3027:9:82
# text = The sun was setting one day, like a great scarlet globe, and the river, to the duckling's vast bewilderment, was getting hard and slippery, when he heard a sound of whirring wings, and high up in the air a flock of swans were flying.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	setting	set	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	scarlet	scarlet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	globe	globe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	duckling	duckling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	's	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	bewilderment	bewilderment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
27	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	slippery	slippery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	whirring	whir	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	38	amod	_	_
38	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	conj	_	_
42	up	up	ADP	RP	_	41	compound:prt	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nsubj	_	_
48	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	nmod	_	_
50	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
51	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	45	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past · progressive | the sun |  |  |  | day | like a great scarlet globe and the river; to the duckling's vast bewilderment | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **get** | past · progressive | the sun *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **hear** | past | spite | a sound of whirring wings |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 4 | **whir** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fly** | past · progressive | a flock of swans | the air *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location air=Theme |
| 6 | **bewilder** |  | the duckling |  |  |  |  |  | nom bewilderment «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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