---
title: There was once upon a time a couple of rich folks who had twelve son… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once upon a time a couple of rich folks who had twelve sons, and when the youngest was grown up he would not stay at home any longer, but would go out into the world and seek his fortune. Who acts: rich folks, DAPPLEGRIM. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs,
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, sentence 108

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There was once upon a time a couple of rich folks who had twelve sons, and when the youngest was grown up he would not stay at home any longer, but would go out into the world and seek his fortune.

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**Who acts:** rich folks, DAPPLEGRIM · **What happens:** be, have, grow up, not stay, go out, seek · **To what, where:** twelve sons, youngest, home, world, fortune

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rich folks, DAPPLEGRIM), 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:pg540:37:108
# text = There was once upon a time a couple of rich folks who had twelve sons, and when the youngest was grown up he would not stay at home any longer, but would go out into the world and seek his fortune.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:unmarked	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	folks	folk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
30	any	any	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
36	out	out	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	into	into	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there | time | once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | rich folks | twelve sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **grow up** | past · passive |  | the youngest |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **stay** | would | DAPPLEGRIM |  |  | home |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at home=Location |
| 5 | **go out** | would | DAPPLEGRIM *not said here* |  |  | the world |  | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **seek** | infinitive | DAPPLEGRIM *not said here* | DAPPLEGRIM's fortune |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fortune=Theme |

<!-- .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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