---
title: Towards midnight there was a rush of wings, and the eight pea-hens s… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Towards midnight there was a rush of wings, and the eight pea-hens settled on the tree, while the ninth became a maiden, and ran to greet the prince. Who acts: rush, ninth. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Towards midnight there was a rush of wings, and the eight pea-hens settled on the tree, while the ninth became a maiden, and ran to greet the prince.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** rush, ninth · **What happens:** be, settle, become, run, greet, rush · **To what, where:** pea hens, tree, prince, wings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rush, ninth), 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:pg641:7:21
# text = Towards midnight there was a rush of wings, and the eight pea-hens settled on the tree, while the ninth became a maiden, and ran to greet the prince.
1	Towards	towards	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	rush	rush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
12	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	pea	pea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	hens	hen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	settled	settle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ninth	ninth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	maiden	maiden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	greet	greet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a rush of wings |  |  | there | midnight |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **settle** | participle · passive |  | the pea hens |  | the tree |  |  | vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: subject=Location |
| 3 | **become** | past | the ninth |  |  |  |  | maiden *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **run** | past | the ninth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **greet** *speech: greet* | to-infinitive | the ninth *not said here* |  | the prince |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Theme |
| 6 | **rush** |  |  | wings |  |  |  |  | nom rush «act 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 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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