---
title: There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin, a care… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin, a careless, idle boy who would do nothing but play ball all day long in the streets with little idle boys like himself. Who acts: poor tailor, careless idle boy. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderfu
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin, a careless, idle boy who would do nothing but play ball all day long in the streets with little idle boys like himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor tailor, careless idle boy · **What happens:** live, have, call, do, play · **To what, where:** poor tailor, son, nothing, ball, streets · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor tailor, careless idle boy), 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:pg503:12:1
# text = There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin, a careless, idle boy who would do nothing but play ball all day long in the streets with little idle boys like himself.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
2	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	_
3	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	Aladdin	Aladdin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
16	careless	careless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	appos	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	obj	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
35	idle	idle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nmod	_	_
37	like	like	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a poor tailor |  | there |  | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme tailor=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | a poor tailor | a son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **call** | participle |  | a son *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **do** | would | a careless idle boy | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 5 | **play** | present |  | ball |  | the streets with little idle boys like boy | day | long *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ball=Theme |

<!-- .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 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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