---
title: But the Swans returned swiftly over the desert to the body which the… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Swans returned swiftly over the desert to the body which they had left upon the hill. Who acts: Swans. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 5, sentence 23

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But the Swans returned swiftly over the desert to the body which they had left upon the hill.

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**Who acts:** Swans · **What happens:** return, leave · **To what, where:** desert, hill

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This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Swans), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg68641:7:23
# text = But the Swans returned swiftly over the desert to the body which they had left upon the hill.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Swans	Swan	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl:relcl	_	_
16	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | the Swans |  |  | the desert to the body |  | swiftly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme over desert=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **leave** | past · perfect · passive |  | the desert to the body |  | the hill |  | Swans *= swan* *nsubj* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme upon hill=Location |

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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 descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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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