---
title: Dick Whittington was a very little boy when his father and mother di… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Dick Whittington was a very little boy when his father and mother died; so little, indeed, that he never knew them, nor the place where he was born. Who acts: Dick, father. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Whittington, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Dick Whittington was a very little boy when his father and mother died; so little, indeed, that he never knew them, nor the place where he was born.

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**Who acts:** Dick, father · **What happens:** be, die, not know, bear · **To what, where:** little boy, father, Dick

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Whittington. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dick, father), 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:pg503:29:1
# text = Dick Whittington was a very little boy when his father and mother died; so little, indeed, that he never knew them, nor the place where he was born.
1	Dick	Dick	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	Whittington	Whittington	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
29	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	32	advmod	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Dick | a little boy nor the place |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **die** | past | Dick's father and mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **not** **know** | past | Dick | father |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 4 | **bear** | past · passive |  | Dick |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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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