---
title: Instantly out came swarms of little men and women, no taller than he… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Instantly out came swarms of little men and women, no taller than her finger, and scattered themselves all over the meadow, singing and dancing, and playing the merriest games, so that at first Graciosa was delighted and watched them with much amusement. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 3, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Instantly out came swarms of little men and women, no taller than her finger, and scattered themselves all over the meadow, singing and dancing, and playing the merriest games, so that at first Graciosa was delighted and watched them with much amusement.

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**What happens:** come, scatter, sing, play, be, watch · **To what, where:** swarms, meadow, merriest games, Graciosa, games

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg540:25:27
# text = Instantly out came swarms of little men and women, no taller than her finger, and scattered themselves all over the meadow, singing and dancing, and playing the merriest games, so that at first Graciosa was delighted and watched them with much amusement.
1	Instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	out	out	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	swarms	swarm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	no	no	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	conj	_	_
13	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	obj	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	merriest	merry	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	33	amod	_	_
33	games	game	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
35	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	41	mark	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	fixed	_	_
37	at	at	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	39	advmod	_	_
39	Graciosa	Graciosa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
41	delighted	delighted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
44	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	_
45	with	with	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	amusement	amusement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  | swarms of little men and women |  |  |  | instantly, out *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location swarm=Theme |
| 2 | **scatter** | past |  | swarms *= swarm* |  | the meadow |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme over meadow=Destination |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **play** | gerund |  | the merriest games |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent game=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  | Graciosa |  | delighted *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **watch** | past |  | games *= game* |  |  |  | with much amusement | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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