---
title: Whilst he was an old and tried servant of the king’s, his wife had b… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whilst he was an old and tried servant of the king’s, his wife had been almost a mother to the young princess ever since the queen had died some years before. Who acts: king, wife, queen. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, with its
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 119

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whilst he was an old and tried servant of the king’s, his wife had been almost a mother to the young princess ever since the queen had died some years before.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, wife, queen · **What happens:** be, try, die · **To what, where:** servant, mother, young princess

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, wife, queen), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:33:119
# text = Whilst he was an old and tried servant of the king’s, his wife had been almost a mother to the young princess ever since the queen had died some years before.
1	Whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
8	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
18	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	30	advmod	_	_
26	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
31	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	32	det	_	_
32	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
33	before	before	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | past | king *not said here* | servant of the king |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is a** | past · perfect | king's wife | a mother |  |  |  | to the young princess; almost *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **die** | past · perfect | the queen | the young princess *not said here* |  |  | ever; year |  | 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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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