---
title: The children, who saw someone coming in the distance, thought it was… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The children, who saw someone coming in the distance, thought it was their dear father coming to them, and sprang to meet him very joyfully. Who acts: children, reel, dear father. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Swans, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/4/20/)

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Six Swans, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The children, who saw someone coming in the distance, thought it was their dear father coming to them, and sprang to meet him very joyfully.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, reel, dear father · **What happens:** see, come, think, be, spring, meet · **To what, where:** someone, dear father, children, king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Swans. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, reel, dear father), 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:pg640:4:20
# text = The children, who saw someone coming in the distance, thought it was their dear father coming to them, and sprang to meet him very joyfully.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obj	_	_
7	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
18	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	joyfully	joyfully	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the children | someone |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer someone=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | in the distance | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in distance=Location |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | reel | children's dear father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **come** | gerund | children's dear father *not said here* |  | children *= child* |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to they=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **spring** | past | the children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **meet** | to-infinitive | the children *not said here* | king |  |  |  | joyfully *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-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.

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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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