---
title: Quicker than lightning they sprang to their feet, and rushed madly a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Quicker than lightning they sprang to their feet, and rushed madly away, all except Elsa, who had strayed farther than the rest, and had found a bed of the finest strawberries right under the trees. Who acts: Quicker lightning, Elsa. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of th
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Quicker than lightning they sprang to their feet, and rushed madly away, all except Elsa, who had strayed farther than the rest, and had found a bed of the finest strawberries right under the trees.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Quicker lightning, Elsa · **What happens:** spring, rush, stray, find · **To what, where:** feet, all, bed, trees

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Quicker lightning, Elsa), 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:pg641:2:22
# text = Quicker than lightning they sprang to their feet, and rushed madly away, all except Elsa, who had strayed farther than the rest, and had found a bed of the finest strawberries right under the trees.
1	Quicker	quick	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
2	than	than	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	rushed	rush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	madly	madly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	away	away	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	obl	_	_
16	except	except	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Elsa	Elsa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	strayed	stray	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	farther	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	21	advmod	_	_
23	than	than	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	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	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	35	amod	_	_
35	strawberries	strawberry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	_
36	right	right	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
37	under	under	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spring** | past | Quicker lightning |  |  | children's feet |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to foot=Destination |
| 2 | **rush** | past | Quicker lightning *not said here* | all |  |  |  | except Elsa; away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stray** | past · perfect | Elsa |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **find** | past · perfect | Quicker lightning *not said here* | a bed of the finest strawberries |  | the trees |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bed=Topic |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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