---
title: At last, tired of disporting themselves, they swam to the shore, and… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last, tired of disporting themselves, they swam to the shore, and twenty-nine of them put on their little white garments and instantly turned into so many beautiful maidens. Who acts: ducks, twenty nine. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2, with its dependen
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last, tired of disporting themselves, they swam to the shore, and twenty-nine of them put on their little white garments and instantly turned into so many beautiful maidens.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ducks, twenty nine · **What happens:** disport, swim, put, turn · **To what, where:** ducks, shore, little white garments, many beautiful maidens

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, 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 (ducks, twenty nine), 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:pg7277:27:57
# text = At last, tired of disporting themselves, they swam to the shore, and twenty-nine of them put on their little white garments and instantly turned into so many beautiful maidens.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
5	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	disporting	disport	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	put	put	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	garments	garment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
30	into	into	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	so	so	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
33	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **disport** | gerund | ducks *= duck* *not said here* | ducks *= duck* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **swim** | past | ducks *= duck* |  |  | the shore |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to shore=Destination |
| 3 | **put** | present | twenty nine of ducks |  |  | ducks's little white garments |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent on garment=Destination |
| 4 | **turn** | past | twenty nine of ducks *not said here* |  |  | many beautiful maidens |  | instantly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into maiden=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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