---
title: Long, long ago an old couple lived in a village, and, as they had no… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Long, long ago an old couple lived in a village, and, as they had no children to love and care for, they gave all their affection to a little dog. Who acts: old couple, they, children. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 1

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Long, long ago an old couple lived in a village, and, as they had no children to love and care for, they gave all their affection to a little dog.

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**Who acts:** old couple, they, children · **What happens:** live, have, love, care, give · **To what, where:** village, children, affection, little dog

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour. 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, they, children), 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:pg641:18:1
# text = Long, long ago an old couple lived in a village, and, as they had no children to love and care for, they gave all their affection to a little dog.
1	Long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
3	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
4	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	love	love	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
28	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	affection	affection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | a old couple |  |  | a village |  | ago *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in village=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | they | no children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **love** | to-infinitive | no children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **care** | infinitive | no children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **give** | past | children *= child* | children's affection | a little dog |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent affection=Theme to dog=Recipient |

<!-- .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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