---
title: It was the custom in old times that as soon as a Japanese boy reache… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the custom in old times that as soon as a Japanese boy reached manhood he should leave his home and roam through the land in search of adventures. Who acts: face, old times, boy. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 165

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It was the custom in old times that as soon as a Japanese boy reached manhood he should leave his home and roam through the land in search of adventures.

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**Who acts:** face, old times, boy · **What happens:** be, reach, leave, search · **To what, where:** custom, manhood, home, land, adventures

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, old times, boy), 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:pg641:4:165
# text = It was the custom in old times that as soon as a Japanese boy reached manhood he should leave his home and roam through the land in search of adventures.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	15	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Japanese	Japanese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
16	manhood	manhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	roam	roam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
24	through	through	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	adventures	adventure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | face | the custom |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **reach** | past | old times | manhood |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** | should | boy | boy's home and roam |  | the land in search of adventures |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent home=Theme through land=Location |
| 4 | **search** |  |  | adventures |  |  |  |  | nom search «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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