---
title: The people all thronged round him on his return, anxious to hear his… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The people all thronged round him on his return, anxious to hear his adventures, but he told them nothing, and only to his mother did he confide what had befallen him. Who acts: people, youth, mother. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Death of the Sun-hero (27), with its depe
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Death of the Sun-hero (27), sentence 36

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The people all thronged round him on his return, anxious to hear his adventures, but he told them nothing, and only to his mother did he confide what had befallen him.

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**Who acts:** people, youth, mother · **What happens:** throng, hear, tell, confide, befall, return · **To what, where:** return, adventures, nothing, youth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Death of the Sun-hero (27). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, youth, 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:pg640:38:36
# text = The people all thronged round him on his return, anxious to hear his adventures, but he told them nothing, and only to his mother did he confide what had befallen him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	thronged	throng	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	round	round	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	adventures	adventure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	iobj	_	_
21	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
28	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	confide	confide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	befallen	befall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	conj	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throng** | past | the people |  |  | youth's return |  | round youth; all *property* | vn swarm-47.5.1-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on return=Location |
| 2 | **hear** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* | youth's adventures |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer adventure=Stimulus |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | youth | nothing | adventures *= adventure* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient nothing=Topic |
| 4 | **confide** *speech: other* | past · do-support | youth's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **befall** | past · perfect · passive |  | youth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **return** |  | youth |  |  |  |  |  | nom return «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 7 | **adventure** |  | youth |  |  |  |  |  | nom adventure «act 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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