---
title: There was once an old couple named Peder and Kirsten who had an only… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once an old couple named Peder and Kirsten who had an only son called Hans. Who acts: old couple, Peder. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 38, sentence 84

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There was once an old couple named Peder and Kirsten who had an only son called Hans.

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**Who acts:** old couple, Peder · **What happens:** be, name, have, call · **To what, where:** old couple, only son · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old couple, Peder), 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:pg3027:38:84
# text = There was once an old couple named Peder and Kirsten who had an only son called Hans.
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
7	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	Peder	Peder	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	xcomp	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	Kirsten	Kirsten	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
13	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
17	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a old couple |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **name** | participle |  | a old couple *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **have** | past | Peder and Kirsten | a only son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 4 | **call** | participle |  | a only son *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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