---
title: There was once upon a time a couple of needy folk who lived in a wre… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once upon a time a couple of needy folk who lived in a wretched hut, in which there was nothing but black want; so they had neither food to eat nor wood to burn. Who acts: couple, ’s. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 1, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was once upon a time a couple of needy folk who lived in a wretched hut, in which there was nothing but black want; so they had neither food to eat nor wood to burn.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** couple, ’s · **What happens:** be, live, have, eat, burn · **To what, where:** wretched hut, food

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (couple, ’s), 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:pg540:44:59
# text = There was once upon a time a couple of needy folk who lived in a wretched hut, in which there was nothing but black want; so they had neither food to eat nor wood to burn.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|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	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	appos	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	needy	needy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	obl	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	nsubj	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
26	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
31	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	32	det	_	_
32	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl	_	_
35	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	36	cc	_	_
36	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 couple of needy folk |  |  | a wretched hut |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hut=Location |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | black *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | past | ’s *= '* | neither food |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient |
| 5 | **eat** | to-infinitive | ’s *= '* *not said here* | neither food *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **burn** | to-infinitive | ’s *= '* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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