---
title: At this instant the King of the Sheep came back to her, and was so d… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At this instant the King of the Sheep came back to her, and was so distracted to find her in tears that he could have torn his wool. Who acts: King. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Wonderful Sheep, part 2, sentence 7

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At this instant the King of the Sheep came back to her, and was so distracted to find her in tears that he could have torn his wool.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** come back, distract, find, tear · **To what, where:** Princess, instant, tears, wool

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Sheep, 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 (King), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg503:31:7
# text = At this instant the King of the Sheep came back to her, and was so distracted to find her in tears that he could have torn his wool.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	back	back	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	distracted	distract	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux	_	_
27	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	wool	wool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come back** | past | the King of the Sheep |  | Princess | this instant |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to she=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **distract** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **find** | to-infinitive |  | Princess |  | tears |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Topic |
| 4 | **tear** | could · perfect | King | King's wool |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location wool=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:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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