---
title: Never again did the swans become men; but they are still different f… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Never again did the swans become men; but they are still different from other swans, for in the night-time those who listen can hear them talk in a language that is certainly not swan’s language; and there are even sounds of laughing and talking, unlike any noise made by the swans whom we know. Who 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/9/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/9/) / 1

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Never again did the swans become men; but they are still different from other swans, for in the night-time those who listen can hear them talk in a language that is certainly not swan’s language; and there are even sounds of laughing and talking, unlike any noise made by the swans whom we know.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** swans, night time, language, sounds, we · **What happens:** not do, become, be, listen, hear, talk · **To what, where:** men, other swans, swans, language, sounds, noise

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, 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 (swans, night time, language, sounds), 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:pg3282:9:1
# text = Never again did the swans become men; but they are still different from other swans, for in the night-time those who listen can hear them talk in a language that is certainly not swan’s language; and there are even sounds of laughing and talking, unlike any noise made by the swans whom we know.
1	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
2	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	become	become	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	still	still	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	28	nsubj	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	listen	listen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl:relcl	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	40	nsubj	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
36	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
38	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’s	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	46	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	44	expl	_	_
44	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	cop	_	_
45	even	even	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	sounds	sound	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	parataxis	_	_
47	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
48	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	46	acl	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	48	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	unlike	unlike	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	54	det	_	_
54	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	_
55	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	54	acl	_	_
56	by	by	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
58	swans	swan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	obl	_	_
59	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	61	obj	_	_
60	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	61	nsubj	_	_
61	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	58	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | past |  |  |  |  | again; time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **become** | present | the swans | men |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | present | swans *= swan* |  |  | other swans | still | different *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **listen** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **hear** | can | the night time | swans *= swan* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **talk** | infinitive | swans *= swan* *not said here* |  |  | a language |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **not** **is a** | present | a language | swan's language |  |  |  | certainly *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **is a** | present |  | sounds and any noise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **laugh** | gerund | sounds and any noise *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **talk** | gerund | sounds and any noise *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 11 | **make** | participle |  | any noise *not said here* |  |  |  | by the swans | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 12 | **know** | present | we | the swans |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer whom=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/8/106/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/9/2/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/9/)