---
title: At last he fell into so great despair that he thought he would put a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At last he fell into so great despair that he thought he would put an end to his own life, and for this purpose laid hold of the sword that she had given him by the hands of the fair-haired lad; but on drawing it from its sheath he noticed that there was some writing on one side of the blade. Who ac
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Blue Mountains, sentence 95

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last he fell into so great despair that he thought he would put an end to his own life, and for this purpose laid hold of the sword that she had given him by the hands of the fair-haired lad; but on drawing it from its sheath he noticed that there was some writing on one side of the blade.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** loss, sword, writing · **What happens:** fall, think, put, lay, give, draw · **To what, where:** purpose laid hold, last, end, sword, loss, sheath · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (loss, sword, writing), 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:pg640:45:95
# text = At last he fell into so great despair that he thought he would put an end to his own life, and for this purpose laid hold of the sword that she had given him by the hands of the fair-haired lad; but on drawing it from its sheath he noticed that there was some writing on one side of the blade.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
15	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
26	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	amod	_	_
27	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	acl	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	iobj	_	_
36	by	by	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
41	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	haired	haired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	54	punct	_	_
46	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
47	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
48	drawing	draw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	54	advcl	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	from	from	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	sheath	sheath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	_
53	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	54	nsubj	_	_
54	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
55	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	57	mark	_	_
56	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	57	expl	_	_
57	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	54	ccomp	_	_
58	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	59	det	_	_
59	writing	writing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
60	on	on	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
61	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	62	nummod	_	_
62	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	nmod	_	_
63	of	of	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	65	det	_	_
65	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | loss | purpose laid hold of the sword |  | last |  | into great despair | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at last=Location |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | loss |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **put** | would | loss | a end |  |  |  | to loss's own life | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent end=Goal |
| 4 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **give** | past · perfect | sword | the sword *not said here* | loss |  |  | by the hands of the fair haired lad | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 6 | **draw** | gerund | loss *not said here* | end |  | end's sheath |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent it=Theme from sheath=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **notice** | past | loss |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **be** | past | some writing on one side of the blade |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **hold** |  |  | the sword |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=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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