---
title: After a time the Queen gave birth to twins, two small sons, who thro… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After a time the Queen gave birth to twins, two small sons, who throve and grew, and were a constant joy to her. Who acts: Queen, two small sons. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Trusty John, sentence 104

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After a time the Queen gave birth to twins, two small sons, who throve and grew, and were a constant joy to her.

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**Who acts:** Queen, two small sons · **What happens:** give, throve, grow, be · **To what, where:** birth, twins, constant joy, Queen

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Queen, two small sons), 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:pg503:41:104
# text = After a time the Queen gave birth to twins, two small sons, who throve and grew, and were a constant joy to her.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	twins	twin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	throve	throve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	constant	constant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | the Queen | birth | twins |  | time |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to twin=Recipient |
| 2 | **throve** | past | two small sons |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **grow** | past | two small sons *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | a constant joy | Queen |  |  |  | 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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