---
title: Formerly he had been a merry fellow, fond of a joke, and in the art… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Formerly he had been a merry fellow, fond of a joke, and in the art of cooking had no equal in the town. Who acts: Peter. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 17

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Formerly he had been a merry fellow, fond of a joke, and in the art of cooking had no equal in the town.

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**Who acts:** Peter · **What happens:** be, have · **To what, where:** equal, art

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Peter), 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:pg2435:16:17
# text = Formerly he had been a merry fellow, fond of a joke, and in the art of cooking had no equal in the town.
1	Formerly	formerly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	cooking	cooking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	equal	equal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | Peter |  |  |  |  | of a joke; fond, formerly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past |  | no equal |  | the art of cooking |  | in the town | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent equal=Patient |

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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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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