---
title: If she chased them in the meadow they fled into the wood, and if she… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If she chased them in the meadow they fled into the wood, and if she pursued them into the wood they dodged round trees and behind sprigs of moss, and with peals of elfin laughter scampered back again into the meadow. Who acts: Graciosa, games, elfin laughter. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by A
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 3, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If she chased them in the meadow they fled into the wood, and if she pursued them into the wood they dodged round trees and behind sprigs of moss, and with peals of elfin laughter scampered back again into the meadow.

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**Who acts:** Graciosa, games, elfin laughter · **What happens:** chase, flee, pursue, dodge, scamper back, peal · **To what, where:** games, meadow, wood, round trees, peals

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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: who acts (Graciosa, games, elfin laughter), 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:pg540:25:29
# text = If she chased them in the meadow they fled into the wood, and if she pursued them into the wood they dodged round trees and behind sprigs of moss, and with peals of elfin laughter scampered back again into the meadow.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chased	chase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	dodged	dodge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	round	round	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	sprigs	sprig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	moss	moss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	peals	peal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	parataxis	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	elfin	elfin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	compound	_	_
37	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	scampered	scamper	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	acl	_	_
39	back	back	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	again	again	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
41	into	into	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chase** | past | Graciosa | games *= game* |  | the meadow |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme in meadow=Trajectory |
| 2 | **flee** | past | games *= game* | the meadow *not said here* |  | the wood |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme meadow=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **pursue** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Graciosa | games *= game* |  | the wood |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme into wood=Trajectory |
| 4 | **dodge** | past | games *= game* | round trees and sprigs of moss |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent tree=Location |
| 5 | **scamper back** | participle |  | peals of elfin laughter *not said here* |  | the meadow | again |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into meadow=Destination |
| 6 | **peal** |  | elfin laughter |  |  |  |  |  | nom peal «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 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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