---
title: Once upon a time there was an old king who had three sons; and the o… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was an old king who had three sons; and the old king fell very sick one time and there was nothing at all could make him well but some golden apples from a far country. Who acts: old king, nothing. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy T
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/26/109/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [More English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/) / [More English Fairy Tales, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/26/) / 109

# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 12, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there was an old king who had three sons; and the old king fell very sick one time and there was nothing at all could make him well but some golden apples from a far country.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old king, nothing · **What happens:** be, have, fall · **To what, where:** three sons

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old king, nothing), 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:pg14241:26:109
# text = Once upon a time there was an old king who had three sons; and the old king fell very sick one time and there was nothing at all could make him well but some golden apples from a far country.
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	0	root	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
27	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	31	nsubj	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	nmod	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	31	advmod	_	_
34	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	37	det	_	_
36	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	apples	apple	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	_
38	from	from	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a old king |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a old king | three sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **fall** | past | the old king |  |  |  | time |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | could · past | nothing |  |  |  |  | make, well *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/26/108/)
- next →: [sentence 110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/26/110/)
- ↑ back to [More English Fairy Tales, part 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/26/)