---
title: When these words were overheard by the sharp-eared comrade and repea… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When these words were overheard by the sharp-eared comrade and repeated to the Simpleton, he was in despair. Who acts: eared comrade, Simpleton. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/35/111/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Flying Ship(24)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/35/) / 111

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Flying Ship(24), sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When these words were overheard by the sharp-eared comrade and repeated to the Simpleton, he was in despair.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eared comrade, Simpleton · **What happens:** overhear, repeat, be · **To what, where:** words, despair

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eared comrade, Simpleton), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:35:111
# text = When these words were overheard by the sharp-eared comrade and repeated to the Simpleton, he was in despair.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	overheard	overhear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	advcl	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
8	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	eared	eared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	comrade	comrade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	repeated	repeat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Simpleton	Simpleton	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **overhear** | past · passive | the eared comrade | this words |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **repeat** | participle | the eared comrade *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the Simpleton | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | past | Simpleton |  |  | despair |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/35/110/)
- next →: [sentence 112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/35/112/)
- ↑ back to [The Flying Ship(24)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/35/)