---
title: Meantime the spindle danced on and on, and just as it had come to th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Meantime the spindle danced on and on, and just as it had come to the end of the golden thread, it reached the King’s son. Who acts: spindle, shuttle. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Meantime the spindle danced on and on, and just as it had come to the end of the golden thread, it reached the King’s son.

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**Who acts:** spindle, shuttle · **What happens:** meantime, dance, come, reach · **To what, where:** end, son

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spindle, shuttle), 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:pg7277:44:27
# text = Meantime the spindle danced on and on, and just as it had come to the end of the golden thread, it reached the King’s son.
1	Meantime	meantime	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	spindle	spindle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	on	on	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	just	just	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meantime** | infinitive | the spindle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **dance** | past | the spindle |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past · perfect | shuttle |  |  |  | to the end of the golden thread |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to end=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **reach** | past | shuttle | the King's son |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent son=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 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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