---
title: Once upon a time there was a King who was so ill that everybody desp… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a King who was so ill that everybody despaired of his life, and his three sons were very sorry, and went out into the palace gardens to weep. Who acts: King, everybody, three sons. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life, with its dependency
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, The Water of Life, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there was a King who was so ill that everybody despaired of his life, and his three sons were very sorry, and went out into the palace gardens to weep.

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**Who acts:** King, everybody, three sons · **What happens:** be, despair, go out, weep · **To what, where:** palace gardens

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, The Water of Life. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, everybody, three sons), 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:pg11027:17:1
# text = Once upon a time there was a King who was so ill that everybody despaired of his life, and his three sons were very sorry, and went out into the palace gardens to weep.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	15	nsubj	_	_
15	despaired	despair	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	very	very	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
30	out	out	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	into	into	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	gardens	garden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | a King |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **despair** | past | everybody |  |  |  |  | of King's life | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | King's three sons |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **go out** | past |  |  |  | the palace gardens |  | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **weep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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:** «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 11027 (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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