---
title: Once upon a time there was a poor laborer who, feeling that he had n… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a poor laborer who, feeling that he had not much longer to live, wished to divide his possessions between his son and daughter, whom he loved dearly. Who acts: poor laborer, laborer. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, with its
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there was a poor laborer who, feeling that he had not much longer to live, wished to divide his possessions between his son and daughter, whom he loved dearly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** poor laborer, laborer · **What happens:** be, feel, have, live, wish, divide · **To what, where:** possessions

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Felicia and the Pot of Pinks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor laborer, laborer), 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:pg503:22:1
# text = Once upon a time there was a poor laborer who, feeling that he had not much longer to live, wished to divide his possessions between his son and daughter, whom he loved dearly.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	laborer	laborer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	feeling	feel	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	wished	wish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	parataxis	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	divide	divide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	possessions	possession	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
27	between	between	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	acl:relcl	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
36	dearly	dearly	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a poor laborer |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **feel** | gerund | a poor laborer |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | past | laborer |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **live** | to-infinitive | laborer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **wish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **divide** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | laborer's possessions |  |  |  | between laborer's son and daughter | vn multiply-108-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent possession=Theme |
| 7 | **love** | past | laborer |  |  |  |  | dearly *property* | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **possess** |  | laborer |  |  |  |  |  | nom possession «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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