---
title: Once upon a time there was a young girl who reached the age of thirt… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a young girl who reached the age of thirty-seven without ever having had a lover, for she was so foolish that no one wanted to marry her. Who acts: young girl, girl, one. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Sillies, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Six Sillies, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there was a young girl who reached the age of thirty-seven without ever having had a lover, for she was so foolish that no one wanted to marry her.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** young girl, girl, one · **What happens:** be, reach, have, want, marry · **To what, where:** young girl, age, lover, girl

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Sillies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young girl, girl, one), 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:pg540:28:1
# text = Once upon a time there was a young girl who reached the age of thirty-seven without ever having had a lover, for she was so foolish that no one wanted to marry her.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	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	9	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nmod	_	_
18	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	20	advmod	_	_
20	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	lover	lover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	32	det	_	_
32	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a young girl |  |  | time | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reach** | past | a young girl | the age of thirty seven |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent age=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | gerund | a young girl *not said here* |  |  |  | ever |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past |  | a lover |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lover=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | girl |  |  |  |  | foolish *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **want** | past | no one |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **marry** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | no one *not said here* | girl |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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