---
title: Fifty years ago there lived a king who was very anxious to get marri… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Fifty years ago there lived a king who was very anxious to get married; but, as he was quite determined that his wife should be as beautiful as the sun, the thing was not so easy as it seemed, for no maiden came up to his standard. Who acts: king, wife, thing, it. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book»
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 4

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Fifty years ago there lived a king who was very anxious to get married; but, as he was quite determined that his wife should be as beautiful as the sun, the thing was not so easy as it seemed, for no maiden came up to his standard.

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**Who acts:** king, wife, thing, it, maiden · **What happens:** live, be, marry, not be, seem, come up · **To what, where:** king, standard

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, wife, thing, it), 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:pg5615:18:4
# text = Fifty years ago there lived a king who was very anxious to get married; but, as he was quite determined that his wife should be as beautiful as the sun, the thing was not so easy as it seemed, for no maiden came up to his standard.
1	Fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
5	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	anxious	anxious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	get	get	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	married	marry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	determined	determined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
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	29	nsubj	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
28	as	as	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	39	advmod	_	_
38	so	so	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
40	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
44	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
45	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	46	det	_	_
46	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
47	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	conj	_	_
48	up	up	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
49	to	to	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
51	standard	standard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a king |  | there |  | ago *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme king=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past | a king |  |  |  |  | anxious *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **marry** | to-infinitive · passive | a king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **is** | past | King |  |  |  |  | determined *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | should | King's wife |  |  |  |  | as the sun; beautiful *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **is** | past | the thing |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **seem** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **come up** | past | no maiden |  |  | King's standard |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to standard=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 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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