--- title: Now it so happened that in a little corner of the king’s dominions,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Now it so happened that in a little corner of the king’s dominions, beside the sea, there lived a poor fisher, who had three sons, and their names were Peter, Paul, and Jesper. Who acts: it, poor fisher, names, dominions. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Ha --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/13/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/) / 13 # The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 13 Now it so happened that in a little corner of the king’s dominions, beside the sea, there lived a poor fisher, who had three sons, and their names were Peter, Paul, and Jesper. **Who acts:** it, poor fisher, names, dominions · **What happens:** happen, live, have, be, name · **To what, where:** poor fisher, little corner, three sons, Peter This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, poor fisher, names, dominions), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:24:13 # text = Now it so happened that in a little corner of the king’s dominions, beside the sea, there lived a poor fisher, who had three sons, and their names were Peter, Paul, and Jesper. 1 Now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 4 advmod _ _ 2 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 so so ADV RB _ 4 advmod _ _ 4 happened happen VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 that that SCONJ IN _ 21 mark _ _ 6 in in ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 7 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 8 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 9 amod _ _ 9 corner corner NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 10 of of ADP IN _ 14 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 13 ’s 's PART POS _ 12 case _ _ 14 dominions dominion NOUN NNS Number=Plur 9 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 16 beside beside ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 17 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 18 sea sea NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 20 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 21 expl _ _ 21 lived live VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 advcl _ _ 22 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 23 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 fisher fisher NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 26 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 27 nsubj _ _ 27 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 24 acl:relcl _ _ 28 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 29 nummod _ _ 29 sons son NOUN NNS Number=Plur 27 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ _ 31 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 32 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 33 nmod:poss _ _ 33 names name NOUN NNS Number=Plur 35 nsubj _ _ 34 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 cop _ _ 35 Peter Peter PROPN NNP Number=Sing 4 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 37 Paul Paul PROPN NNP Number=Sing 35 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 39 and and CCONJ CC _ 40 cc _ _ 40 Jesper Jesper PROPN NNP Number=Sing 35 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **happen** | past | it | | | | now | | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **live** | past | | a poor fisher | | a little corner of the king's dominions and the sea; there | | | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme fisher=Location | | 3 | **have** | past | a poor fisher | three sons | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient | | 4 | **is a** | past | dominions's names | Peter and Paul and Jesper | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **name** | | dominions *= dominion* | | | | | | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/12/) - next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/14/) - ↑ back to [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/)