---
title: It happened that these three brothers owned large flocks of sheep, t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened that these three brothers owned large flocks of sheep, though none so large and fine as the one they had just bought. Who acts: It, three brothers, brothers. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 29

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It happened that these three brothers owned large flocks of sheep, though none so large and fine as the one they had just bought.

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**Who acts:** It, three brothers, brothers · **What happens:** happen, own, buy · **To what, where:** large flocks, one

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, three brothers, brothers), 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:pg3454:12:29
# text = It happened that these three brothers owned large flocks of sheep, though none so large and fine as the one they had just bought.
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	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	owned	own	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	flocks	flock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	7	conj	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	just	just	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	bought	buy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	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 | **own** | past | this three brothers | large flocks of sheep |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot flock=Theme |
| 3 | **buy** | past · perfect | brothers *= brother* | the one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |

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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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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