---
title: Well, there was once a gentleman who had fine lands and houses, and… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, there was once a gentleman who had fine lands and houses, and he very much wanted to have a son to be heir to them. Who acts: gentleman. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 68

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Well, there was once a gentleman who had fine lands and houses, and he very much wanted to have a son to be heir to them.

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**Who acts:** gentleman · **What happens:** have, be · **To what, where:** fine lands, son, heir, fox

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gentleman), 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:pg14241:31:68
# text = Well, there was once a gentleman who had fine lands and houses, and he very much wanted to have a son to be heir to them.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	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	19	cop	_	_
5	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	lands	land	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
26	heir	heir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	appos	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | a gentleman | fine lands and houses |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent land=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | gentleman |  |  |  |  | want *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | gentleman *not said here* | a son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | heir | fox |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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