---
title: Once upon a time there lived a king on the earth whose name was Alex… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a king on the earth whose name was Alexander of Macedon: this was in the old days very long ago. Who acts: name, this, Alexander. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 19, sentence 110

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Once upon a time there lived a king on the earth whose name was Alexander of Macedon: this was in the old days very long ago.

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**Who acts:** name, this, Alexander · **What happens:** live, be, name · **To what, where:** king, earth, Alexander

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (name, this, Alexander), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:19:110
# text = Once upon a time there lived a king on the earth whose name was Alexander of Macedon: this was in the old days very long ago.
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	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
12	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	Alexander	Alexander	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Macedon	Macedon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
25	very	very	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	_
27	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a king |  | the earth and Alexander; there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme king=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Alexander's name | Alexander |  |  |  | of Macedon | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | ago, long *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **name** |  | Alexander |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Project Gutenberg book 62509 (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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