---
title: There were formerly a king and a queen, who were so sorry that they… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were formerly a king and a queen, who were so sorry that they had no children; so sorry that it cannot be expressed. Who acts: king, queen. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, sentence 1

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There were formerly a king and a queen, who were so sorry that they had no children; so sorry that it cannot be expressed.

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**Who acts:** king, queen · **What happens:** be, have, not express · **To what, where:** children, it

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, queen), 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:pg503:10:1
# text = There were formerly a king and a queen, who were so sorry that they had no children; so sorry that it cannot be expressed.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	formerly	formerly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	acl:relcl	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	expressed	express	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	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 king and a queen |  |  | there |  | formerly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | a queen |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | king | no children |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **express** | can · passive |  | it |  |  |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: subject=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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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