---
title: They swooped downwards, and as soon as they touched the ground they… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They swooped downwards, and as soon as they touched the ground they turned into her twelve brothers, and she knew that she had freed them. Who acts: ravens, Queen. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They swooped downwards, and as soon as they touched the ground they turned into her twelve brothers, and she knew that she had freed them.

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**Who acts:** ravens, Queen · **What happens:** swoop, touch, turn, know, free · **To what, where:** ground, Queen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ravens, Queen), 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:pg540:41:90
# text = They swooped downwards, and as soon as they touched the ground they turned into her twelve brothers, and she knew that she had freed them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	swooped	swoop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	downwards	downwards	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	freed	free	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	ccomp	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swoop** | past | ravens *= raven* |  |  |  |  | downwards *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **touch** | past | ravens *= raven* | the ground |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **turn** | past | ravens *= raven* | the ground *not said here* |  |  |  | into Queen's twelve brothers *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent ground=Theme into brother=Result |
| 4 | **know** | past | Queen |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **free** | past · perfect · passive |  | Queen |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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