---
title: 'I was once a girl too,' answered the queen, when the fish had ended… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I was once a girl too,' answered the queen, when the fish had ended; 'and my father was the king of a great country. Who acts: I, girl, father. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 43

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'I was once a girl too,' answered the queen, when the fish had ended; 'and my father was the king of a great country.

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**Who acts:** I, girl, father · **What happens:** be, answer, end · **To what, where:** girl, queen, fish, king

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, girl, father), 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:pg3027:25:43
# text = 'I was once a girl too,' answered the queen, when the fish had ended; 'and my father was the king of a great country.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	ended	end	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
20	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	parataxis	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | a girl |  |  |  | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | a girl |  | the queen |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent queen=Eventuality |
| 3 | **end** | past · perfect · passive |  | the fish |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is a** | past | my father | the king |  |  |  | of a great country | 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:** «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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