---
title: Here he found a great crowd and much commotion in the streets, and a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Here he found a great crowd and much commotion in the streets, and a herald rode about announcing, ‘The King’s daughter seeks a husband, but whoever would woo her must first execute a difficult task, and if he does not succeed he must be content to forfeit his life.’ Who acts: youth, herald rode, da
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 39

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Here he found a great crowd and much commotion in the streets, and a herald rode about announcing, ‘The King’s daughter seeks a husband, but whoever would woo her must first execute a difficult task, and if he does not succeed he must be content to forfeit his life.’

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**Who acts:** youth, herald rode, daughter, whoever · **What happens:** find, announce, seek, woo, execute, not succeed · **To what, where:** great crowd, husband, difficult task, life

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth, herald rode, daughter, whoever), 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:pg7277:50:39
# text = Here he found a great crowd and much commotion in the streets, and a herald rode about announcing, ‘The King’s daughter seeks a husband, but whoever would woo her must first execute a difficult task, and if he does not succeed he must be content to forfeit his life.’
1	Here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	commotion	commotion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	herald	herald	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	rode	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
18	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	announcing	announce	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	seeks	seek	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	woo	woo	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
36	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	37	advmod	_	_
37	execute	execute	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	ccomp	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
43	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
44	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
45	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
46	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	47	advmod	_	_
47	succeed	succeed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	conj	_	_
48	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
49	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
50	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	cop	_	_
51	content	content	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	advcl	_	_
52	to	to	PART	TO	_	53	mark	_	_
53	forfeit	forfeit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	csubj	_	_
54	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | youth | a great crowd and much commotion in the streets |  | here |  | a herald rode *obl* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crowd=Topic |
| 2 | **announce** *speech: other* | gerund | a herald rode *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **seek** | present | the King's daughter | a husband |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent husband=Theme |
| 4 | **woo** | would | whoever |  |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Result |
| 5 | **execute** | must | daughter | a difficult task |  |  |  | first *property* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Patient |
| 6 | **not** **succeed** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · do-support | youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** | must | youth |  |  |  |  | content *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **forfeit** | to-infinitive |  | youth's life |  |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent life=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 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.

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