---
title: There was once upon a time a man who had three sons, and two were cl… — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once upon a time a man who had three sons, and two were clever, but the third, called Ivan, was a fool. Who acts: fool, man, two. A sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, The Two Princes, part 2, sentence 52

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There was once upon a time a man who had three sons, and two were clever, but the third, called Ivan, was a fool.

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**Who acts:** fool, man, two · **What happens:** be, have, call · **To what, where:** three sons, fool · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», The Two Princes, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fool, man, two), 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:pg29672:23:52
# text = There was once upon a time a man who had three sons, and two were clever, but the third, called Ivan, was a fool.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	_
24	Ivan	Ivan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a fool |  |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a man | three sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | two |  |  |  |  | clever *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | two *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **call** | participle | two *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past |  | a fool |  |  |  |  | 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.

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**Text:** «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales», Project Gutenberg book 29672 (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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