---
title: Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in m… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one else's time, there was a young lad of eighteen or so named Tom Tiver working on the Hall Farm. Who acts: companion, Tom. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English F
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 3, sentence 40

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Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one else's time, there was a young lad of eighteen or so named Tom Tiver working on the Hall Farm.

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**Who acts:** companion, Tom · **What happens:** not be, name, work · **To what, where:** Tom

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, 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 (companion, Tom), 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:pg14241:17:40
# text = Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one else's time, there was a young lad of eighteen or so named Tom Tiver working on the Hall Farm.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	0	root	_	_
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	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	32	cc	_	_
28	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	_
30	else	else	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	35	expl	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	eighteen	eighteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	38	nmod	_	_
41	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
42	so	so	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
44	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
45	Tiver	Tiver	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	flat	_	_
46	working	work	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	44	acl	_	_
47	on	on	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	Hall	Hall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	50	compound	_	_
50	Farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | companion |  |  |  | in my time nor your time; time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **name** | participle | companion *not said here* | Tom |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tom=Theme |
| 3 | **work** | gerund | Tom *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the Hall Farm | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on farm=Theme |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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