---
title: But, though they ran to and fro, the duck always fled past them, and… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, though they ran to and fro, the duck always fled past them, and would not let herself be caught. Who acts: words, duck. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Duck, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The White Duck, sentence 64

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, though they ran to and fro, the duck always fled past them, and would not let herself be caught.

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**Who acts:** words, duck · **What happens:** run, fro, flee, not let, catch · **To what, where:** Duck

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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 (words, duck), 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:pg640:29:64
# text = But, though they ran to and fro, the duck always fled past them, and would not let herself be caught.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	past	past	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
21	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obj	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | words *= word* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fro** | infinitive | words *= word* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **flee** | past | the duck |  |  |  |  | past words *= word*; always *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme past they=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **not** **let** | would | the duck *not said here* | Duck |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **catch** | infinitive · passive | Duck *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «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.

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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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