---
title: Swift are the maidens that follow after, And swiftly it flies for th… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: Swift are the maidens that follow after, And swiftly it flies for the farther bound: And long and loud are the peals of laughter, As some fair runner is flung to ground; While backward and forward, and to and fro, The maidens contend on the trampled snow. Who acts: Swift maidens, ball, peals, maiden
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/6/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Legends of the Northwest](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/) / [The Game of Ball. \[2\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/6/) / 11

# Legends of the Northwest, The Game of Ball. \[2\], sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Swift are the maidens that follow after, And swiftly it flies for the farther bound: And long and loud are the peals of laughter, As some fair runner is flung to ground; While backward and forward, and to and fro, The maidens contend on the trampled snow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Swift maidens, ball, peals, maidens · **What happens:** be, follow, fly, fling, fro, contend · **To what, where:** Swift maidens, peals, fair runner, ground, trampled snow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Game of Ball. \[2\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Swift maidens, ball, peals, maidens), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8122:6:11
# text = Swift are the maidens that follow after, And swiftly it flies for the farther bound: And long and loud are the peals of laughter, As some fair runner is flung to ground; While backward and forward, and to and fro, The maidens contend on the trampled snow.
1	Swift	swift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	follow	follow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	after	after	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	flies	fly	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	farther	far	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	amod	_	_
16	bound	bound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
18	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	conj	_	_
22	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	peals	peal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
28	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
29	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	det	_	_
30	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	runner	runner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	flung	fling	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
37	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
38	backward	backward	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
43	to	to	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	fro	fro	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	_
49	contend	contend	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	45	conj	_	_
50	on	on	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
52	trampled	trample	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	53	amod	_	_
53	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present |  | the Swift maidens |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **follow** | present | the Swift maidens |  |  |  |  | after *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fly** | present | ball |  |  |  |  | for the farther bound; swiftly *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | present | the Swift maidens | the peals |  |  |  | of laughter; backward *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **fling** | present · passive | the peals *not said here* | some fair runner |  | ground |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme to ground=Destination |
| 6 | **fro** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **contend** | present | the maidens |  |  | the trampled snow |  |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **trample** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/6/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/6/12/)
- ↑ back to [The Game of Ball. \[2\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8122/6/)