---
title: The weddineers wondered at the sight when, swoop! the herons were do… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The weddineers wondered at the sight when, swoop! the herons were down among them scattering the men-at-arms. Who acts: weddineers, herons. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Earl Mar's Daughter, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Earl Mar's Daughter, sentence 44

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The weddineers wondered at the sight when, swoop! the herons were down among them scattering the men-at-arms.

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**Who acts:** weddineers, herons · **What happens:** wonder, swoop, be, scatter · **To what, where:** sight, men, arms

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Earl Mar's Daughter. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (weddineers, herons), 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:pg7439:35:44
# text = The weddineers wondered at the sight when, swoop! the herons were down among them scattering the men-at-arms.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	weddineers	weddineer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	swoop	swoop	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	herons	heron	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
15	among	among	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	scattering	scatter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | the weddineers |  |  | the sight |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **swoop** | present | the weddineers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the herons |  |  |  |  | down *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **scatter** | gerund | herons *= heron* | the men |  | arms |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination-Conative»: agent=Agent man=Theme at arm=Destination |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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