---
title: Once upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest a po… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children; the boy was called Hansel and the girl Grettel. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/35/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Hansel and Grettel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/35/) / 1

# The Blue Fairy Book, Hansel and Grettel, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children; the boy was called Hansel and the girl Grettel.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** dwell, call · **To what, where:** poor woodcutter, outskirts, boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg503:35:1
# text = Once upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children; the boy was called Hansel and the girl Grettel.
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	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	outskirts	outskirt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woodcutter	woodcutter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	parataxis	_	_
28	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	xcomp	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
32	Grettel	Grettel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | past |  | a poor woodcutter |  | the outskirts of a large forest; there | time | with his wife and two children; once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme woodcutter=Location |
| 2 | **call** | past · passive |  | the boy |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The Forty Thieves, 157](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/34/157/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/35/2/)
- ↑ back to [Hansel and Grettel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/35/)