---
title: But though the servants chased and chevied, they could not get rid o… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But though the servants chased and chevied, they could not get rid of the duck; for she circled round and round, and always came back to the spot where her children lay, crying: Who acts: servants, Duck, children. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck, with its depende
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/56/)

<!-- 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/) / 56

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But though the servants chased and chevied, they could not get rid of the duck; for she circled round and round, and always came back to the spot where her children lay, crying:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servants, Duck, children · **What happens:** chase, chevy, not get, circle, come back, lay · **To what, where:** spot

<!-- .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 (servants, Duck, children), 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:pg640:29:56
# text = But though the servants chased and chevied, they could not get rid of the duck; for she circled round and round, and always came back to the spot where her children lay, crying:
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	chased	chase	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	chevied	chevy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
13	rid	rid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	circled	circle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
21	round	round	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	round	round	ADV	RB	_	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	27	advmod	_	_
27	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
28	back	back	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
32	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	35	advmod	_	_
33	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
35	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
37	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chase** | past | the servants |  |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **chevy** | past | the servants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **get** | could | servants *= servant* |  |  |  |  | rid *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **circle** | past | Duck |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **come back** | past | Duck *not said here* |  |  | the spot |  | always *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to spot=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **lay** | present | Duck's children |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | Duck *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/55/)
- next →: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/57/)
- ↑ back to [The White Duck](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/29/)