---
title: Once upon a time, at the town of Senna on the banks of the Zambesi,… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time, at the town of Senna on the banks of the Zambesi, was born a child. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 37

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Once upon a time, at the town of Senna on the banks of the Zambesi, was born a child.

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**What happens:** bear · **To what, where:** child

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg3027:1:37
# text = Once upon a time, at the town of Senna on the banks of the Zambesi, was born a child.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	19	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	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	Senna	Senna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Zambesi	Zambesi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bear** | past · passive |  | a child |  |  | time | once *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: child=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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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