---
title: Before he was many years old, however, he had the great sorrow of lo… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before he was many years old, however, he had the great sorrow of losing his mother, whose last words were to advise him never to undertake anything of importance without consulting the Fairy under whose protection she had placed him. Who acts: godmother, great sorrow, Queen, mother. A sentence of «
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 1, sentence 92

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before he was many years old, however, he had the great sorrow of losing his mother, whose last words were to advise him never to undertake anything of importance without consulting the Fairy under whose protection she had placed him.

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**Who acts:** godmother, great sorrow, Queen, mother · **What happens:** be, have, lose, advise, not undertake, consult · **To what, where:** great sorrow, mother, godmother, anything, Fairy, protection

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (godmother, great sorrow, Queen, mother), 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:pg640:19:92
# text = Before he was many years old, however, he had the great sorrow of losing his mother, whose last words were to advise him never to undertake anything of importance without consulting the Fairy under whose protection she had placed him.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	however	however	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	losing	lose	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	advise	advise	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	undertake	undertake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
30	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	29	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	importance	importance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
34	consulting	consult	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	under	under	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
40	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	39	acl:relcl	_	_
43	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | godmother |  |  |  | year | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | godmother | the great sorrow |  |  |  | however *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sorrow=Patient |
| 3 | **lose** | gerund | the great sorrow *not said here* | godmother's mother and godmother's mother and mother's last words's last words |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Eventuality |
| 4 | **advise** *speech: other* | past |  | godmother |  |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **undertake** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | godmother *not said here* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 6 | **consult** | gerund | godmother *not said here* | the Fairy |  | protection |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fairy=Theme |
| 7 | **place** | past · perfect | Queen | godmother |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 8 | **word** |  | godmother's mother and godmother's mother and last words's last words |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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