---
title: There was once a rich old man who had two sons, and as his wife was… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a rich old man who had two sons, and as his wife was dead, the elder lived with him, and helped him to look after his property. Who acts: rich old man, wife, elder. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was once a rich old man who had two sons, and as his wife was dead, the elder lived with him, and helped him to look after his property.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** rich old man, wife, elder · **What happens:** be, have, live, help, look · **To what, where:** two sons, elder

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rich old man, wife, elder), 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:pg3454:18:82
# text = There was once a rich old man who had two sons, and as his wife was dead, the elder lived with him, and helped him to look after his property.
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
31	after	after	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	property	property	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a rich old man |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a rich old man | two sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | Ireland's wife |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **live** | past | the elder |  |  |  |  | with Ireland | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with he=Location |
| 5 | **help** | past | the elder *not said here* | elder |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 6 | **look** | to-infinitive | elder *not said here* |  |  |  | after elder's property |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 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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