---
title: He felt so overwhelmed by despair that he thought for an instant of… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He felt so overwhelmed by despair that he thought for an instant of putting an end to his life. Who acts: Prince, instant. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, sentence 59

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He felt so overwhelmed by despair that he thought for an instant of putting an end to his life.

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**Who acts:** Prince, instant · **What happens:** feel, overwhelm, think, put · **To what, where:** end

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, instant), 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:pg640:17:59
# text = He felt so overwhelmed by despair that he thought for an instant of putting an end to his life.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	overwhelmed	overwhelm	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	putting	put	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
15	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **overwhelm** | participle | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by despair | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | for a instant | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **put** | gerund | a instant *not said here* | a end |  |  |  | to Prince's life | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent end=Goal |

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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 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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