---
title: The Herd-boy did as he was told, and before he could have believed i… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Herd-boy did as he was told, and before he could have believed it possible he found himself in a big hall, where even the walls were made of pure gold. Who acts: Herd boy, BOY. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 2, sentence 71

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The Herd-boy did as he was told, and before he could have believed it possible he found himself in a big hall, where even the walls were made of pure gold.

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**Who acts:** Herd boy, BOY · **What happens:** do, tell, believe, find, make · **To what, where:** BOY, big hall, walls · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), 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 (Herd boy, BOY), 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:pg640:15:71
# text = The Herd-boy did as he was told, and before he could have believed it possible he found himself in a big hall, where even the walls were made of pure gold.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	Herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux	_	_
16	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
21	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	32	advmod	_	_
28	even	even	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl:relcl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the Herd boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | BOY |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 3 | **believe** | could · perfect · passive |  | BOY |  |  |  | possible *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **find** | past | BOY | BOY |  | a big hall |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 5 | **make** | past · passive |  | the walls |  |  |  | of pure gold | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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