---
title: After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. Who acts: plaits, it, Prince. 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 122

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower.

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**Who acts:** plaits, it, Prince · **What happens:** live, happen, ride, pass · **To what, where:** wood

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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 (plaits, it, Prince), 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:pg540:41:122
# text = After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
5	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obl	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	riding	ride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
21	through	through	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past · perfect | plaits *= plait* |  |  |  | year | like this | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  | day |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **ride** | past · progressive | a Prince |  |  | the wood |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent through wood=Trajectory |
| 4 | **pass** | participle | a Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the tower | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by tower=Location |

<!-- .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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