---
title: They ran with pikes and mattocks to the mountain, and searched till… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They ran with pikes and mattocks to the mountain, and searched till evening to find the opening by which their children had disappeared, without being able to find it. Who acts: parents, children. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Ratcatcher, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They ran with pikes and mattocks to the mountain, and searched till evening to find the opening by which their children had disappeared, without being able to find it.

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**Who acts:** parents, children · **What happens:** run, search, find, disappear, be · **To what, where:** opening

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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 (parents, children), 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:pg540:32:88
# text = They ran with pikes and mattocks to the mountain, and searched till evening to find the opening by which their children had disappeared, without being able to find it.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	pikes	pike	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	mattocks	mattock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	till	till	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	opening	opening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	cop	_	_
28	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  | with pikes and mattocks; to the mountain *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to mountain=Result |
| 2 | **search** | past | parents *= parent* *not said here* |  |  |  | evening |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive | parents *= parent* *not said here* | the opening |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opening=Topic |
| 4 | **disappear** | past · perfect | parents's children |  |  |  |  | by the opening | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | gerund | parents's children *not said here* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **find** | to-infinitive | parents's children *not said here* | opening |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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