---
title: In times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south of Irelan… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south of Ireland who had three sons, all beautiful children; but the Queen, their mother, sickened unto death when they were yet very young, which caused great grief throughout the Court, particularly to the King, her husband, who could in no wise
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 1

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In times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south of Ireland who had three sons, all beautiful children; but the Queen, their mother, sickened unto death when they were yet very young, which caused great grief throughout the Court, particularly to the King, her husband, who could in no wise be comforted.

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**Who acts:** King, south, mother · **What happens:** be, have, sicken, cause, comfort · **To what, where:** Queen, three sons, mother, great grief, husband

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, south, mother), 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:pg540:8:1
# text = In times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south of Ireland who had three sons, all beautiful children; but the Queen, their mother, sickened unto death when they were yet very young, which caused great grief throughout the Court, particularly to the King, her husband, who could in no wise be comforted.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	yore	yore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
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	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	south	south	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
23	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	sickened	sicken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl	_	_
34	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
36	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	41	advmod	_	_
37	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
38	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
39	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
40	very	very	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	nsubj	_	_
44	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
45	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
47	throughout	throughout	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	Court	court	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
51	particularly	particularly	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
52	to	to	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	57	nmod:poss	_	_
57	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	65	punct	_	_
59	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	65	nsubj:pass	_	_
60	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	65	aux	_	_
61	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	65	mark	_	_
62	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	65	nsubj:pass	_	_
63	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	65	nsubj:pass	_	_
64	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	65	aux:pass	_	_
65	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	57	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a King and a Queen in the south of Ireland | the Queen and the King |  | there | time |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | the south of Ireland | three sons and all beautiful children |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **sicken** | participle |  | King's mother *not said here* |  |  |  | unto death | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | King |  |  |  | yet | young *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **cause** | past | King's mother | great grief |  |  | throughout the Court |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition grief=Patient |
| 6 | **comfort** | could · passive |  | Ireland's husband |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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