---
title: Once upon a time there lived a man who wasted all his money, and gre… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a man who wasted all his money, and grew so poor that his only food was a few grains of corn, which he scratched like a fowl from out of a dust-heap. Who acts: man, only food, few grains. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there lived a man who wasted all his money, and grew so poor that his only food was a few grains of corn, which he scratched like a fowl from out of a dust-heap.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, only food, few grains · **What happens:** live, waste, grow, be, scratch · **To what, where:** man, money, few grains, dust heap

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, only food, few grains), 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:pg641:15:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived a man who wasted all his money, and grew so poor that his only food was a few grains of corn, which he scratched like a fowl from out of a dust-heap.
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	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	wasted	waste	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	13	det:predet	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	advcl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
33	like	like	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	fowl	fowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
37	out	out	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
40	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a man |  | there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **waste** | past | a man | man's money |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Patient |
| 3 | **grow** | past |  |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past | man's only food | a few grains |  |  |  | of corn | tree rules |
| 5 | **scratch** | past | a few grains |  |  | a dust heap |  | like a fowl | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from heap=Source |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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