---
title: There was once a man who had twelve sons: the eleven eldest were bot… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a man who had twelve sons: the eleven eldest were both big and strong, but the twelfth, whose name was Esben, was only a little fellow. Who acts: man, eldest, name, twelfth Esben. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was once a man who had twelve sons: the eleven eldest were both big and strong, but the twelfth, whose name was Esben, was only a little fellow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, eldest, name, twelfth Esben · **What happens:** be, have, name · **To what, where:** twelve sons, twelfth Esben, little fellow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, eldest, name, twelfth Esben), 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:pg5615:28:5
# text = There was once a man who had twelve sons: the eleven eldest were both big and strong, but the twelfth, whose name was Esben, was only a little fellow.
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	appos	_	_
13	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	both	both	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
22	twelfth	twelfth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	Esben	Esben	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a man |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a man | twelve sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | eldest |  |  |  |  | big, both *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | eldest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the twelfth Esben's name | the twelfth Esben |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is a** | past | the twelfth Esben | a little fellow |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **name** |  | the twelfth Esben |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication 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.

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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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