---
title: It happened to be the king's custom to visit his stables once a week… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened to be the king's custom to visit his stables once a week, so that he might see that his horses were being properly cared for. Who acts: It, king. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 16, sentence 64

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It happened to be the king's custom to visit his stables once a week, so that he might see that his horses were being properly cared for.

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**Who acts:** It, king · **What happens:** happen, be, visit, see, care · **To what, where:** custom, stables, horses

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, 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 (It, king), 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:pg3027:16:64
# text = It happened to be the king's custom to visit his stables once a week, so that he might see that his horses were being properly cared for.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	visit	visit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	stables	stable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	10	advmod	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	21	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
26	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	aux:pass	_	_
27	properly	properly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	cared	care	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	ccomp	_	_
29	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | the king's custom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **visit** | to-infinitive |  | king's stables |  |  |  | once *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stable=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **see** | might | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **care** | past · passive |  | king's horses |  |  |  | properly *property* | 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:** «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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