---
title: The blue heron flaps from the reeds, and away wings her course up th… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: The blue heron flaps from the reeds, and away wings her course up the river; Straight and swift is her flight o'er the meads, but she hardly outstrips the canoemen. Who acts: swift, mane. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5, with its d
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5, sentence 91

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The blue heron flaps from the reeds, and away wings her course up the river; Straight and swift is her flight o'er the meads, but she hardly outstrips the canoemen.

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**Who acts:** swift, mane · **What happens:** be, outstrip · **To what, where:** flight, canoemen, blue heron flaps

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., 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 (swift, mane), 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:pg8122:12:92
# text = The blue heron flaps from the reeds, and away wings her course up the river; Straight and swift is her flight o'er the meads, but she hardly outstrips the canoemen.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	heron	heron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	flaps	flap	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	reeds	reed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	Straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	swift	swift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
24	o'er	o'er	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	meads	mead	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	outstrips	outstrip	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	canoemen	canoemen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | swift | mane's flight |  |  |  | o'er the meads; mane *nmod:poss*; straight *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **outstrip** | present | mane | the canoemen |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot canoemen=Theme |

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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:** «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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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