---
title: Once upon a time, in the reign of King Cambrinus, there lived at Ave… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time, in the reign of King Cambrinus, there lived at Avesnes one of his lords, who was the finest man—by which I mean the fattest—in the whole country of Flanders. Who acts: lords, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 2

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Once upon a time, in the reign of King Cambrinus, there lived at Avesnes one of his lords, who was the finest man—by which I mean the fattest—in the whole country of Flanders.

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**Who acts:** lords, I · **What happens:** live, be, mean · **To what, where:** one, finest man, fattest

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lords, I), 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:pg540:40:2
# text = Once upon a time, in the reign of King Cambrinus, there lived at Avesnes one of his lords, who was the finest man—by which I mean the fattest—in the whole country of Flanders.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	14	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	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	reign	reign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	Cambrinus	Cambrinus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	14	expl	_	_
14	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Avesnes	Avesne	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	lords	lord	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obl	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	fattest	fat	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	Flanders	flander	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | one of King's lords |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | King's lords | the finest man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **mean** | present | I | the fattest |  |  |  | in the whole country of Flanders | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot fat=Theme in country=Attribute |

<!-- .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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