---
title: There was once an emperor, very great and mighty, and he ruled over… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once an emperor, very great and mighty, and he ruled over an empire so large that no one knew where it began and where it ended. Who acts: emperor, one, tale. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 2

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There was once an emperor, very great and mighty, and he ruled over an empire so large that no one knew where it began and where it ended.

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**Who acts:** emperor, one, tale · **What happens:** be, rule, know, begin, end · **To what, where:** empire · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, one, tale), 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:pg641:19:2
# text = There was once an emperor, very great and mighty, and he ruled over an empire so large that no one knew where it began and where it ended.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	appos	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	ruled	rule	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
15	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	empire	empire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	advcl	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
24	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	advmod	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	ccomp	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	30	advmod	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	ended	end	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	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 | a emperor |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **rule** | past | emperor |  |  | a empire |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **know** | past | no one |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **begin** | past | tale |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 5 | **end** | past | tale |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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