---
title: Once upon a time there lived a young man who vowed that he would nev… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a young man who vowed that he would never marry any girl who had not royal blood in her veins. Who acts: young man, man, girl. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Knife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Enchanted Knife, sentence 1

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Once upon a time there lived a young man who vowed that he would never marry any girl who had not royal blood in her veins.

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**Who acts:** young man, man, girl · **What happens:** live, vow, not marry, have · **To what, where:** young man, girl, royal blood, veins

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Knife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young man, man, girl), 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:pg641:23:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived a young man who vowed that he would never marry any girl who had not royal blood in her veins.
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	9	det	_	_
8	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	vowed	vow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
17	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	veins	vein	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a young man |  | there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **vow** | past | a young man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **marry** | would | man | any girl |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | past | any girl | royal blood |  | girl's veins |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blood=Patient |

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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 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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