---
title: ONCE upon a time there lived a king who was so just and kind that hi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ONCE upon a time there lived a king who was so just and kind that his subjects called him “the Good King.” Who acts: king, subjects. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Prince Darling, sentence 1

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ONCE upon a time there lived a king who was so just and kind that his subjects called him “the Good King.”

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**Who acts:** king, subjects · **What happens:** live, be, call · **To what, where:** king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Darling. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, subjects), 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:pg503:39:1
# text = ONCE upon a time there lived a king who was so just and kind that his subjects called him “the Good King.”
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	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	just	just	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	subjects	subject	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	Good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  |  |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | a king |  |  |  |  | kind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **call** | past | king's subjects |  | king |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

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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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