---
title: A great cockchafer came flying past; he caught sight of Thumbelina,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A great cockchafer came flying past; he caught sight of Thumbelina, and in a moment had put his arms round her slender waist, and had flown off with her to a tree. Who acts: great cockchafer, cockchafer. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A great cockchafer came flying past; he caught sight of Thumbelina, and in a moment had put his arms round her slender waist, and had flown off with her to a tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** great cockchafer, cockchafer · **What happens:** come, fly, catch, put, fly off, sight · **To what, where:** sight, arms, Thumbelina

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great cockchafer, cockchafer), 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:pg640:47:111
# text = A great cockchafer came flying past; he caught sight of Thumbelina, and in a moment had put his arms round her slender waist, and had flown off with her to a tree.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	cockchafer	cockchafer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	past	past	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	round	round	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	waist	waist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	flown	fly	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | a great cockchafer |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | a great cockchafer *not said here* |  |  |  |  | past *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | past | cockchafer | sight of Thumbelina |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme |
| 4 | **put** | past · perfect | cockchafer *not said here* | cockchafer's arms |  |  | moment | round leaf's slender waist | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent arm=Goal |
| 5 | **fly off** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | with leaf; to a tree *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to tree=Result |
| 6 | **sight** |  |  | Thumbelina |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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