---
title: They were very poor, and their seven children incommoded them greatl… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were very poor, and their seven children incommoded them greatly, because not one of them was able to earn his bread. Who acts: man, seven children, one. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 3

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They were very poor, and their seven children incommoded them greatly, because not one of them was able to earn his bread.

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**Who acts:** man, seven children, one · **What happens:** be, incommode, earn · **To what, where:** man, bread

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, seven children, one), 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:pg503:33:3
# text = They were very poor, and their seven children incommoded them greatly, because not one of them was able to earn his bread.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	incommoded	incommode	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	earn	earn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **incommode** | past | man's seven children | man |  |  |  | greatly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | one of man |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **earn** | to-infinitive | one of man *not said here* | his bread |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bread=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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