---
title: There was once a king who had only one son, and this young man torme… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a king who had only one son, and this young man tormented his father from morning till night to allow him to travel in far countries. Who acts: king, young man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World, sentence 1

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There was once a king who had only one son, and this young man tormented his father from morning till night to allow him to travel in far countries.

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**Who acts:** king, young man · **What happens:** be, have, torment, allow, travel · **To what, where:** one son, father, man, far countries

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Prince Who Wanted to See the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, young man), 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:pg641:42:1
# text = There was once a king who had only one son, and this young man tormented his father from morning till night to allow him to travel in far countries.
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	tormented	torment	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	till	till	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	travel	travel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	countries	country	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a king |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a king | one son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **torment** | past | this young man | man's father |  |  | morning; night |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus father=Experiencer |
| 4 | **allow** | to-infinitive | this young man *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer he=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **travel** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | this young man *not said here* |  |  | far countries |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in country=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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