---
title: But the Shoes of Swiftness flew too fast for them, and at last their… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Shoes of Swiftness flew too fast for them, and at last their cries and the rattle of their wings died away as he crossed the great river that runs round the world. Who acts: Shoes, last cries, boy, great river. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its d
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the Shoes of Swiftness flew too fast for them, and at last their cries and the rattle of their wings died away as he crossed the great river that runs round the world.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Shoes, last cries, boy, great river, sisters, wings · **What happens:** fly, die away, cross, run, cry, rattle · **To what, where:** great river, world

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Shoes, last cries, boy, great river), 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:pg503:27:90
# text = But the Shoes of Swiftness flew too fast for them, and at last their cries and the rattle of their wings died away as he crossed the great river that runs round the world.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Shoes	Shoe	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Swiftness	Swiftness	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	rattle	rattle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
24	away	away	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	runs	run	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
33	round	round	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the Shoes of Swiftness |  |  |  |  | for sisters *= sister*; fast *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **die away** | past | sisters's last cries and the rattle of sisters's wings |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **cross** | past | boy | the great river |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 4 | **run** | present | the great river |  |  | the world |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round world=Trajectory |
| 5 | **cry** |  | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **rattle** |  | sisters's wings |  |  |  |  |  | nom rattle «event intransitive»: of=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 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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