---
title: Sire, there was once upon a time a fisherman so old and so poor that… — The Arabian Nights Entertainments · tree and pragmatics
description: Sire, there was once upon a time a fisherman so old and so poor that he could scarcely manage to support his wife and three children. Who acts: fisherman, sire. A sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Opening, part 3, sentence 57

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Sire, there was once upon a time a fisherman so old and so poor that he could scarcely manage to support his wife and three children.

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**Who acts:** fisherman, sire · **What happens:** be, manage, support · **To what, where:** wife

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This is a sentence of «The Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fisherman, sire), 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:pg128:3:57
# text = Sire, there was once upon a time a fisherman so old and so poor that he could scarcely manage to support his wife and three children.
1	Sire	sire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
6	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	support	support	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | a fisherman |  |  |  | time | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | a fisherman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **manage** | could | sire |  |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **support** | to-infinitive | sire *not said here* | sire's wife and three children |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wife=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Arabian Nights Entertainments» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 128 (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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