---
title: So the man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than the f… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than the feathers became a flock of ravens, which chased the crows home again. Who acts: man, Farmer, feathers, flock. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/84/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [Farmer Weatherbeard](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/) / 84

# The Red Fairy Book, Farmer Weatherbeard, sentence 84

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than the feathers became a flock of ravens, which chased the crows home again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, Farmer, feathers, flock · **What happens:** do, have, fling down, become, chase · **To what, where:** this, man, flock, crows

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, Farmer, feathers, flock), 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:pg540:43:84
# text = So the man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than the feathers became a flock of ravens, which chased the crows home again.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	down	down	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
15	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	xcomp	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	ravens	raven	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	chased	chase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	home	home	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
29	again	again	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the man | this |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |
| 2 | **have** | past | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **fling down** | past | Farmer | man |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **become** | past | the feathers | a flock of ravens |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **chase** | past | a flock of ravens | the crows |  |  | again | home *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crow=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/83/)
- next →: [sentence 85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/85/)
- ↑ back to [Farmer Weatherbeard](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/43/)