---
title: In the meantime, outside the palace walls, the poor White Duck swam… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the meantime, outside the palace walls, the poor White Duck swam up and down the pond; and near it laid three eggs, out of which there came one morning two little fluffy ducklings and a little ugly drake. Who acts: poor White Duck, pond. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The W
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the meantime, outside the palace walls, the poor White Duck swam up and down the pond; and near it laid three eggs, out of which there came one morning two little fluffy ducklings and a little ugly drake.

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**Who acts:** poor White Duck, pond · **What happens:** swim, lay, come · **To what, where:** meantime, three eggs, two little fluffy ducklings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor White Duck, pond), 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:pg640:29:24
# text = In the meantime, outside the palace walls, the poor White Duck swam up and down the pond; and near it laid three eggs, out of which there came one morning two little fluffy ducklings and a little ugly drake.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	White	White	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Duck	Duck	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	up	up	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	near	near	ADP	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
25	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	obl	_	_
31	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	32	expl	_	_
32	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
33	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl:unmarked	_	_
35	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nummod	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
37	fluffy	fluffy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	ducklings	duckling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
41	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
42	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	drake	drake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** | past | the poor White Duck |  |  | the meantime and the palace walls |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in meantime=Trajectory |
| 2 | **lay** | past | pond | three eggs |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Result |
| 3 | **come** | past | pond *not said here* | two little fluffy ducklings and a little ugly drake |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme out which=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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