---
title: Once upon a time there lived an old man who had only one son, whom h… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived an old man who had only one son, whom he loved dearly; but they were very poor, and often had scarcely enough to eat. Who acts: old man, man, skill. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there lived an old man who had only one son, whom he loved dearly; but they were very poor, and often had scarcely enough to eat.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, man, skill · **What happens:** live, have, love, be, eat · **To what, where:** old man, one son

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, man, skill), 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:pg2435:27:48
# text = Once upon a time there lived an old man who had only one son, whom he loved dearly; but they were very poor, and often had scarcely enough to eat.
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	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|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	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
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	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	obj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	dearly	dearly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	often	often	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
30	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old man |  | there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | a old man | one son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **love** | past | man | one son |  |  |  | dearly *property* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer whom=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | skill |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  | enough, often *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 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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