---
title: So he kept watch half the night; but a little after midnight he was… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So he kept watch half the night; but a little after midnight he was overcome by an irresistible drowsiness, and fell fast asleep. Who acts: Szabo, irresistible drowsiness. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, sentence 26

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So he kept watch half the night; but a little after midnight he was overcome by an irresistible drowsiness, and fell fast asleep.

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**Who acts:** Szabo, irresistible drowsiness · **What happens:** keep, watch, overcome, fall · **To what, where:** Szabo

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), 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 (Szabo, irresistible drowsiness), 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:pg640:30:26
# text = So he kept watch half the night; but a little after midnight he was overcome by an irresistible drowsiness, and fell fast asleep.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
5	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obl	_	_
12	after	after	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	overcome	overcome	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	irresistible	irresistible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	drowsiness	drowsiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
25	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | Szabo |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **watch** | infinitive | Szabo *not said here* |  |  |  | night |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **overcome** | past · passive | a irresistible drowsiness | Szabo |  |  |  | a little after midnight *obl* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Theme |
| 4 | **fall** | past | Szabo *not said here* |  |  |  |  | asleep, fast *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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