---
title: The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to fetch the best doctors… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea, but it was all of no use; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better. Who acts: swiftest messengers, queen. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea, but it was all of no use; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better.

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**Who acts:** swiftest messengers, queen · **What happens:** send, hurry, fetch, grow · **To what, where:** swiftest messengers, best doctors, country

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swiftest messengers, queen), 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:pg641:32:4
# text = The swiftest messengers were sent hurrying to fetch the best doctors from every country under the sea, but it was all of no use; the queen grew rapidly worse instead of better.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	swiftest	swift	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	hurrying	hurry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	amod	_	_
11	doctors	doctor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
15	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
30	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	worse	bad	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	xcomp	_	_
32	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	34	case	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
34	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past · passive |  | the swiftest messengers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hurry** | gerund | the swiftest messengers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fetch** | to-infinitive | the swiftest messengers *not said here* | the best doctors |  | every country |  | under the sea | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent doctor=Theme from country=Source |
| 4 | **grow** | past | the queen |  |  |  |  | instead better; bad *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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