---
title: The King had set guards before all the gates, and it was not possibl… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King had set guards before all the gates, and it was not possible to avoid his fate. Who acts: it, King. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves, 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/pg7277/46/19/)

<!-- 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 Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Three Snake-leaves](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/) / 19

# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Snake-leaves, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The King had set guards before all the gates, and it was not possible to avoid his fate.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, King · **What happens:** set, not be, avoid, fate · **To what, where:** King, fate

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, King), 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:pg7277:46:19
# text = The King had set guards before all the gates, and it was not possible to avoid his fate.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	guards	guard	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	csubj	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past · perfect · passive |  | the King |  |  | before all gates |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme guard=Destination |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | possible *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **avoid** | to-infinitive |  | King's fate |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent fate=Location |
| 4 | **fate** |  | King |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event 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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/20/)
- ↑ back to [The Three Snake-leaves](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/)