---
title: When they had lived a few years happily together, the King’s mother,… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they had lived a few years happily together, the King’s mother, who was a wicked old woman, began to slander the young Queen, and said to the King: Who acts: pomp, mother, wicked old woman. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they had lived a few years happily together, the King’s mother, who was a wicked old woman, began to slander the young Queen, and said to the King:

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**Who acts:** pomp, mother, wicked old woman · **What happens:** live, be, begin, slander, say · **To what, where:** mother, wicked old woman, young Queen, King · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (pomp, mother, wicked old woman), 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:pg540:41:83
# text = When they had lived a few years happily together, the King’s mother, who was a wicked old woman, began to slander the young Queen, and said to the King:
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
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	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
9	together	together	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	slander	slander	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past · perfect | pomp | the King's mother |  |  | year | happily, together *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the King's mother | a wicked old woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **begin** | past | a wicked old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **slander** | to-infinitive | a wicked old woman *not said here* | the young Queen |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent queen=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a wicked old woman *not said here* |  | the King |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to king=Recipient |

<!-- .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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