---
title: Quick as lightning the wolf flew round the wood, and in a minute man… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Quick as lightning the wolf flew round the wood, and in a minute many hundred wolves rose up before him, increasing in number every moment, till they could be counted by thousands. Who acts: wolf, many hundred wolves, thousands. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beas
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Quick as lightning the wolf flew round the wood, and in a minute many hundred wolves rose up before him, increasing in number every moment, till they could be counted by thousands.

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**Who acts:** wolf, many hundred wolves, thousands · **What happens:** fly, rise up, increase, count · **To what, where:** wood, number, wolves

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wolf, many hundred wolves, thousands), 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:pg640:15:38
# text = Quick as lightning the wolf flew round the wood, and in a minute many hundred wolves rose up before him, increasing in number every moment, till they could be counted by thousands.
1	Quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	case	_	_
2	as	as	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	round	round	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
15	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	before	before	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	increasing	increase	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
26	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	det	_	_
27	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	counted	count	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
34	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | the wolf |  |  | the wood |  | quick lightning | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round wood=Trajectory |
| 2 | **rise up** | past | many hundred wolves |  |  |  | before Ferko; minute |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before he=Location |
| 3 | **increase** | gerund | many hundred wolves *not said here* |  |  | number | moment |  | vn caused\_calibratable\_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **count** | could · passive | thousands | wolves *= wolf* |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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 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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