---
title: Now there lived in a town a few miles off a soldier who had three so… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now there lived in a town a few miles off a soldier who had three sons, fine youths and strong, and the best players at shinny in that country. Who acts: soldier. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 4, sentence 56

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Now there lived in a town a few miles off a soldier who had three sons, fine youths and strong, and the best players at shinny in that country.

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**Who acts:** soldier · **What happens:** live, have · **To what, where:** few miles, town, three sons

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldier), 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:pg3027:4:56
# text = Now there lived in a town a few miles off a soldier who had three sons, fine youths and strong, and the best players at shinny in that country.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	youths	youth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	players	player	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	shinny	shinny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a few miles |  | a town; there | now | off a soldier; the best players at shinny in that country *obl* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in town=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | a soldier | three sons and fine youths |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=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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