---
title: “And in an instant they came tumbling in one over another, and yet t… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “And in an instant they came tumbling in one over another, and yet they were neither dusty nor spoilt, and the Queen found them quite as good as she had fancied them. Who acts: Apricots, Queen. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 2, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“And in an instant they came tumbling in one over another, and yet they were neither dusty nor spoilt, and the Queen found them quite as good as she had fancied them.

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**Who acts:** Apricots, Queen · **What happens:** come, tumble, be, find, fancy · **To what, where:** instant, Apricots, Queen

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Apricots, Queen), 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:pg503:24:80
# text = “And in an instant they came tumbling in one over another, and yet they were neither dusty nor spoilt, and the Queen found them quite as good as she had fancied them.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	tumbling	tumble	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	xcomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obl	_	_
11	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	dusty	dusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
20	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	21	cc	_	_
21	spoilt	spoilt	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	fancied	fancy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** *in a quote* | past | Apricots *= apricot* |  |  | a instant |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tumble** *in a quote* | gerund | Apricots *= apricot* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in one over another | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in one=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | Apricots *= apricot* |  |  |  | yet | dusty, neither *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* |  | Apricots *= apricot* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **find** *in a quote* | past | the Queen | Apricots *= apricot* |  |  |  | good *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic |
| 6 | **fancy** *in a quote* | past · perfect · passive |  | Queen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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