---
title: They were great black creatures that ran boldly in broad daylight th… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were great black creatures that ran boldly in broad daylight through the streets, and swarmed so, all over the houses, that people at last could not put their hand or foot down anywhere without touching one. Who acts: bands, great black creatures, people. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by A
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Ratcatcher, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were great black creatures that ran boldly in broad daylight through the streets, and swarmed so, all over the houses, that people at last could not put their hand or foot down anywhere without touching one.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bands, great black creatures, people · **What happens:** be, run, swarm, not put, touch · **To what, where:** great black creatures, broad daylight, houses, that, one

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bands, great black creatures, people), 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:pg540:32:2
# text = They were great black creatures that ran boldly in broad daylight through the streets, and swarmed so, all over the houses, that people at last could not put their hand or foot down anywhere without touching one.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	boldly	boldly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	daylight	daylight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	swarmed	swarm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
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	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obj	_	_
26	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	nmod	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	_
36	down	down	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	31	advmod	_	_
38	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
39	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | bands *= band* | great black creatures |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **run** | past | great black creatures |  |  | broad daylight |  | through the streets; boldly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in daylight=Trajectory |
| 3 | **swarm** | participle | bands *= band* *not said here* |  |  | the houses |  |  | vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over house=Location |
| 4 | **not** **put** | could | people at last | that |  |  |  | anywhere *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent that=Asset hand=Goal |
| 5 | **touch** | gerund | people at last *not said here* | one |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Co-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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