---
title: There were once upon a time five-and twenty tin-soldiers--all brothe… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were once upon a time five-and twenty tin-soldiers--all brothers, as they were made out of the same old tin spoon. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 1

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There were once upon a time five-and twenty tin-soldiers--all brothers, as they were made out of the same old tin spoon.

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**What happens:** be, make out · **To what, where:** brothers, same old tin spoon

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg640:50:1
# text = There were once upon a time five-and twenty tin-soldiers--all brothers, as they were made out of the same old tin spoon.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
11	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
25	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	spoon	spoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past |  |  |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **make out** | past · passive |  | brothers *= brother* |  | the same old tin spoon |  |  | tree rules |

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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 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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