---
title: There were once upon a time a King and a Queen who lived happily tog… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were once upon a time a King and a Queen who lived happily together, and they had twelve children, all of whom were boys. Who acts: time, King, all. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 1

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There were once upon a time a King and a Queen who lived happily together, and they had twelve children, all of whom were boys.

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**Who acts:** time, King, all · **What happens:** be, live, have · **To what, where:** twelve children, boys

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (time, King, all), 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:pg540:41:1
# text = There were once upon a time a King and a Queen who lived happily together, and they had twelve children, all of whom were boys.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|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	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
14	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	together	together	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nmod	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **live** | past | a time |  |  |  |  | happily, together *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | King | twelve children and boys |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | past | all | boys |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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