---
title: The fawn may fly, but the wolf is fleet; The fox creeps sly on Magâ'… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: The fawn may fly, but the wolf is fleet; The fox creeps sly on Magâ's [10] retreat; And a woman's revenge--it is swift and sweet." Who acts: fawn, wolf, fox, woman. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Game of Ball. [2], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Game of Ball. \[2\], sentence 21

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The fawn may fly, but the wolf is fleet; The fox creeps sly on Magâ's \[10\] retreat; And a woman's revenge--it is swift and sweet."

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**Who acts:** fawn, wolf, fox, woman · **What happens:** fly, be, creep, revenge · **To what, where:** 10 retreat

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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 (fawn, wolf, fox, woman), 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:pg8122:6:21
# text = The fawn may fly, but the wolf is fleet; The fox creeps sly on Magâ's [10] retreat; And a woman's revenge--it is swift and sweet."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fawn	fawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	wolf	wolf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	fleet	fleet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	creeps	creep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	sly	sly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
17	Magâ	Magâ	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	10	10	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	20	punct	_	_
22	retreat	retreat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
24	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	revenge	revenge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	swift	swift	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	sweet	sweet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | may | the fawn |  |  |  |  | a woman's revenge *conj* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | the wolf |  |  |  |  | fleet *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **creep** | present | the fox |  |  | Magâ's 10 retreat |  | sly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on retreat=Trajectory |
| 4 | **is** | present | fox |  |  |  |  | swift *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | fox *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **revenge** |  | a woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom revenge «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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