---
title: For many years they were happy and prosperous, but bad times came, a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For many years they were happy and prosperous, but bad times came, and at last nothing was left them but their daughter, who was as beautiful as the morning. Who acts: man, daughter. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, sentence 2

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For many years they were happy and prosperous, but bad times came, and at last nothing was left them but their daughter, who was as beautiful as the morning.

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**Who acts:** man, daughter · **What happens:** be, come, leave · **To what, where:** nothing

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, daughter), 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:pg641:31:2
# text = For many years they were happy and prosperous, but bad times came, and at last nothing was left them but their daughter, who was as beautiful as the morning.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	prosperous	prosperous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	as	as	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	acl:relcl	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  | year | happy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **leave** | past · passive |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme they=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** | past | man's daughter |  |  |  | morning | beautiful *property* | tree rules |

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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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