---
title: Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen who, though it is a ve… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen who, though it is a very long while since they died, were much the same in their tastes and pursuits as people nowadays. Who acts: it, King. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, with its depen
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen who, though it is a very long while since they died, were much the same in their tastes and pursuits as people nowadays.

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**Who acts:** it, King · **What happens:** live, be, die, taste · **To what, where:** King, tastes

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, King), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7277:11:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen who, though it is a very long while since they died, were much the same in their tastes and pursuits as people nowadays.
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	8	det	_	_
8	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
19	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	much	much	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	tastes	taste	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	pursuits	pursuit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	_
33	as	as	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
35	nowadays	nowadays	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a King and Queen |  | there | time | once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme king=Location |
| 2 | **is** | present | it |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **die** | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | King's tastes as people and pursuits |  | same *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **taste** |  | King |  |  |  |  | as people | nom taste «cognition transitive»: poss=agent as=obl |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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