---
title: Once upon a time there lived a shoemaker who could get no work to do… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a shoemaker who could get no work to do, and was so poor that he and his wife nearly died of hunger. Who acts: shoemaker, work, Sicilianische. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there lived a shoemaker who could get no work to do, and was so poor that he and his wife nearly died of hunger.

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**Who acts:** shoemaker, work, Sicilianische · **What happens:** live, get, do, be, die · **To what, where:** shoemaker, work

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shoemaker, work, Sicilianische), 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:pg5615:17:9
# text = Once upon a time there lived a shoemaker who could get no work to do, and was so poor that he and his wife nearly died of hunger.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	shoemaker	shoemaker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
26	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	hunger	hunger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a shoemaker |  | there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme shoemaker=Location |
| 2 | **get** | could | a shoemaker | no work |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | no work *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **die** | past | Sicilianische |  |  |  |  | of hunger; nearly *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of hunger=Causer |

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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 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.

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