---
title: They rushed on as fast as ghosts, as whirlwinds, as vampires when th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They rushed on as fast as ghosts, as whirlwinds, as vampires when they hunt at midnight, and how long they rode no man can tell, for the way is far. Who acts: Costan, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, sentence 128

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They rushed on as fast as ghosts, as whirlwinds, as vampires when they hunt at midnight, and how long they rode no man can tell, for the way is far.

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**Who acts:** Costan, man · **What happens:** rush, hunt, ride, tell, be · **To what, where:** man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Costan, man), 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:pg641:20:128
# text = They rushed on as fast as ghosts, as whirlwinds, as vampires when they hunt at midnight, and how long they rode no man can tell, for the way is far.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	rushed	rush	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	whirlwinds	whirlwind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	vampires	vampire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	hunt	hunt	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
22	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rush** | past | Costan |  |  |  |  | as ghosts and whirlwinds and vampires; fast *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hunt** | present | Costan |  |  |  | midnight |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ride** | past | Costan | no man |  |  |  | long *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can | no man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | for the way; far *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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