---
title: He ate four meals a day, slept twelve hours out of the twenty-four,… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He ate four meals a day, slept twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and the only thing he ever did was to shoot at small birds with his bow and arrow. Who acts: King, only thing. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He ate four meals a day, slept twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and the only thing he ever did was to shoot at small birds with his bow and arrow.

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**Who acts:** King, only thing · **What happens:** eat, sleep, do, be · **To what, where:** four meals, twenty four, only thing

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (King, only thing), 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:pg540:40:3
# text = He ate four meals a day, slept twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and the only thing he ever did was to shoot at small birds with his bow and arrow.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	meals	meal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	24	advmod	_	_
24	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	shoot	shoot	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	arrow	arrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past | King | four meals |  |  | day |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meal=Patient |
| 2 | **sleep** | past | King *not said here* |  |  | the twenty four | hour |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** | past | King | the only thing *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past | the only thing |  |  |  |  | at small birds; with King's bow and arrow; shoot *property* | 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 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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