---
title: In the meantime the two little ducklings had fallen asleep, and the… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the meantime the two little ducklings had fallen asleep, and the little drake lay between them, covered up by their wings, to be kept warm under their feathers. Who acts: two little ducklings, little drake. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck, with its dependency 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/30/)

<!-- 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 Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The White Duck](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/) / 30

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the meantime the two little ducklings had fallen asleep, and the little drake lay between them, covered up by their wings, to be kept warm under their feathers.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** two little ducklings, little drake · **What happens:** fall, lay, cover up, keep · **To what, where:** meantime

<!-- .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 (two little ducklings, little drake), 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:pg640:29:30
# text = In the meantime the two little ducklings had fallen asleep, and the little drake lay between them, covered up by their wings, to be kept warm under their feathers.
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	9	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	ducklings	duckling	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	drake	drake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
17	between	between	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
29	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
30	under	under	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past · perfect | the two little ducklings |  |  | the meantime |  | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in meantime=Location |
| 2 | **lay** | infinitive | the little drake |  |  |  |  | between ducklings *= duckling* | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent between they=Destination |
| 3 | **cover up** | participle | the little drake *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by ducklings's wings | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive · passive | the little drake *not said here* |  |  |  |  | warm *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/29/)
- next →: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/31/)
- ↑ back to [The White Duck](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/)