---
title: It was in this way that death once overtook the Queen of the Fairies… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was in this way that death once overtook the Queen of the Fairies, and it became necessary to call a general assembly to elect a new sovereign. Who acts: accident, death. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Watch, sentence 98

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It was in this way that death once overtook the Queen of the Fairies, and it became necessary to call a general assembly to elect a new sovereign.

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**Who acts:** accident, death · **What happens:** be, overtake, become, call, elect · **To what, where:** way, general assembly, new sovereign · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Watch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (accident, death), 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:pg7277:8:98
# text = It was in this way that death once overtook the Queen of the Fairies, and it became necessary to call a general assembly to elect a new sovereign.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	det	_	_
5	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
7	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
9	overtook	overtake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Fairies	Fairy	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
19	necessary	necessary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	general	general	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	assembly	assembly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	elect	elect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	sovereign	sovereign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | accident |  |  | this way |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **overtake** | past | death | this way |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | past | accident |  |  |  |  | necessary *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **call** | to-infinitive | accident *not said here* | a general assembly |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent assembly=Recipient |
| 5 | **elect** | to-infinitive | accident *not said here* | a new sovereign |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sovereign=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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