---
title: But when crowds of people went out from the town to examine the ill-… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when crowds of people went out from the town to examine the ill-fated pit that had swallowed up such numbers, and yet never seemed to be full, they could discover nothing. Who acts: crowds, people. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Voice of Death, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when crowds of people went out from the town to examine the ill-fated pit that had swallowed up such numbers, and yet never seemed to be full, they could discover nothing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** crowds, people · **What happens:** go out, examine, swallow up, not seem, be, discover · **To what, where:** town, ill fated pit, nothing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crowds, people), 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:pg540:27:58
# text = But when crowds of people went out from the town to examine the ill-fated pit that had swallowed up such numbers, and yet never seemed to be full, they could discover nothing.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
3	crowds	crowd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	advcl	_	_
7	out	out	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	examine	examine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	fated	fated	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	pit	pit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	swallowed	swallow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	numbers	number	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
36	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go out** | past | crowds of people |  |  | the town |  | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **examine** | to-infinitive | crowds of people *not said here* | the ill fated pit |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pit=Theme |
| 3 | **swallow up** | past · perfect · passive |  | the ill fated pit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **seem** | past | crowds of people *not said here* |  |  |  | yet |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive | crowds of people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | full *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **discover** | could | people | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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