---
title: It happened once that a king, who had a great kingdom and three sons… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened once that a king, who had a great kingdom and three sons, became blind, and no human skill or art could restore to him his sight. Who acts: It, king, human skill. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/86/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/) / 86

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It happened once that a king, who had a great kingdom and three sons, became blind, and no human skill or art could restore to him his sight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, king, human skill · **What happens:** happen, have, become, restore, sight · **To what, where:** great kingdom, sight, king

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, king, human skill), 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:pg5615:14:86
# text = It happened once that a king, who had a great kingdom and three sons, became blind, and no human skill or art could restore to him his sight.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
18	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
22	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	art	art	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	restore	restore	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a king | a great kingdom and three sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kingdom=Patient |
| 3 | **become** | past |  |  |  |  |  | blind *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **restore** | could | no human skill or art | king's sight | king |  |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent sight=Theme to he=Recipient |
| 5 | **sight** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/85/)
- next →: [sentence 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/87/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/14/)