---
title: Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the two elder were clever, but the third was a regular dunce. Who acts: old couple, two elder, third. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Flying Ship(24), sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the two elder were clever, but the third was a regular dunce.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old couple, two elder, third · **What happens:** live, have, be · **To what, where:** old couple, three sons, regular dunce

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Flying Ship(24). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old couple, two elder, third), 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:pg640:35:2
# text = Once upon a time there lived an old couple who had three sons; the two elder were clever, but the third was a regular dunce.
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	elder	elder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	third	third	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	regular	regular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	dunce	dunce	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old couple |  | there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme couple=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | a old couple | three sons |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | the two elder |  |  |  |  | clever *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | the third | a regular dunce |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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