---
title: Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons, who were all s… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons, who were all so clever and brave that he began to be afraid that they would want to reign over the kingdom before he was dead. Who acts: king, three sons, sons. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its d
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons, who were all so clever and brave that he began to be afraid that they would want to reign over the kingdom before he was dead.

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**Who acts:** king, three sons, sons · **What happens:** be, have, begin, want, reign · **To what, where:** three sons, kingdom

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, three sons, sons), 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:pg503:23:1
# text = Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons, who were all so clever and brave that he began to be afraid that they would want to reign over the kingdom before he was dead.
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	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	all	all	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
26	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	ccomp	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	reign	reign	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	over	over	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
39	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a king |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a king | three sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | three sons |  |  |  |  | all, clever *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | three sons *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **begin** | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **want** | would | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 8 | **reign** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | sons *= son* *not said here* |  |  | the kingdom |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, 137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/22/137/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/2/)
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