---
title: But in spite of the swiftness with which they flew through the air,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But in spite of the swiftness with which they flew through the air, the time passed even quicker for Saphir and Serpentine, who had so much to think about. Who acts: fairies, time, Saphir. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, sentence 49

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But in spite of the swiftness with which they flew through the air, the time passed even quicker for Saphir and Serpentine, who had so much to think about.

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**Who acts:** fairies, time, Saphir · **What happens:** fly, pass, have, think about, spite · **To what, where:** air, spite, much, swiftness

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, 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 (fairies, time, Saphir), 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:pg640:12:49
# text = But in spite of the swiftness with which they flew through the air, the time passed even quicker for Saphir and Serpentine, who had so much to think about.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	swiftness	swiftness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obl	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	through	through	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
18	even	even	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	quicker	quick	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	17	advmod	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Saphir	Saphir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	Serpentine	Serpentine	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
31	about	about	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | fairies *= fairy* |  |  | the air |  | with the swiftness | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through air=Location |
| 2 | **pass** | participle | the time |  |  | spite of the swiftness |  | for Saphir and Serpentine; quick *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in spite=Location |
| 3 | **have** | past | Saphir and Serpentine | much |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent much=Patient |
| 4 | **think about** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **spite** |  |  | the swiftness |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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