---
title: Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen, who were the best cre… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen, who were the best creatures in the world, and so kind-hearted that they could not bear to see their subjects want for anything. Who acts: King, creatures, subjects. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Featherhead and the Princess
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Featherhead and the Princess Celandine, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen, who were the best creatures in the world, and so kind-hearted that they could not bear to see their subjects want for anything.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, creatures, subjects · **What happens:** live, be, heart, not bear, see, want · **To what, where:** King, best creatures, world · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Featherhead and the Princess Celandine. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, creatures, subjects), 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:pg7277:12:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen, who were the best creatures in the world, and so kind-hearted that they could not bear to see their subjects want for anything.
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	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	hearted	heart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	subjects	subject	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
35	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	ccomp	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	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 and the best creatures |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | a King and Queen and the best creatures | the best creatures |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **heart** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **bear** | could | creatures *= creature* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | creatures *= creature* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **want** | present | creatures's subjects |  |  |  |  | for anything | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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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