---
title: He was afraid to go home and tell the same tale that he had told yes… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was afraid to go home and tell the same tale that he had told yesterday; so he searched the wood through and through till night was nearly come. Who acts: shepherd. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was afraid to go home and tell the same tale that he had told yesterday; so he searched the wood through and through till night was nearly come.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shepherd · **What happens:** be, go, tell, search, come · **To what, where:** same tale, yesterday, wood · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd), 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:pg3454:2:43
# text = He was afraid to go home and tell the same tale that he had told yesterday; so he searched the wood through and through till night was nearly come.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	home	home	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
16	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	through	through	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	through	through	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
26	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl:unmarked	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | shepherd |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | to-infinitive | shepherd *not said here* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | shepherd *not said here* | the same tale |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | shepherd |  | yesterday |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **search** | past | shepherd | the wood |  |  |  | through *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent wood=Location |
| 6 | **come** | past | shepherd *not said here* |  |  |  | night | nearly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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