---
title: He took the precaution of surrounding the palace with a dense cloud,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He took the precaution of surrounding the palace with a dense cloud, and then hastened to his Court, where his prolonged absence was causing much anxiety. Who acts: King, precaution, absence. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 2, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took the precaution of surrounding the palace with a dense cloud, and then hastened to his Court, where his prolonged absence was causing much anxiety.

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**Who acts:** King, precaution, absence · **What happens:** take, surround, hasten, prolong, cause · **To what, where:** precaution, palace, Court, much anxiety

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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 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, precaution, absence), 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:pg640:20:19
# text = He took the precaution of surrounding the palace with a dense cloud, and then hastened to his Court, where his prolonged absence was causing much anxiety.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	precaution	precaution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	surrounding	surround	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	dense	dense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
16	hastened	hasten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
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	Court	Court	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	prolonged	prolong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	causing	cause	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	ccomp	_	_
27	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	anxiety	anxiety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | King | the precaution |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent precaution=Theme |
| 2 | **surround** | gerund | the precaution *not said here* | the palace |  |  |  | with a dense cloud | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent palace=Destination with cloud=Theme |
| 3 | **hasten** | participle | King *not said here* |  | King's Court |  | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent to court=Result |
| 4 | **prolong** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **cause** | past · progressive | absence | much anxiety |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition anxiety=Patient |

<!-- .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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