---
title: When they were all assembled he chose a thousand of the finest bulls… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were all assembled he chose a thousand of the finest bulls and cows, and drove them down to the river, followed by a great crowd wondering what would happen. Who acts: Masilo, great crowd. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependen
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they were all assembled he chose a thousand of the finest bulls and cows, and drove them down to the river, followed by a great crowd wondering what would happen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Masilo, great crowd · **What happens:** assemble, choose, drive down, follow, wonder, happen · **To what, where:** people, thousand, river · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Masilo, great crowd), 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:pg3282:16:54
# text = When they were all assembled he chose a thousand of the finest bulls and cows, and drove them down to the river, followed by a great crowd wondering what would happen.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	assembled	assemble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
13	bulls	bull	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	33	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **assemble** | past · passive |  | people |  |  |  | all *property* | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **choose** | past | Masilo | a thousand of the finest bulls and cows |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thousand=Theme |
| 3 | **drive down** | past | Masilo *not said here* | people |  | the river |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme to river=Trajectory |
| 4 | **follow** | participle |  | the river *not said here* |  |  |  | by a great crowd | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by crowd=Location |
| 5 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | a great crowd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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