---
title: Now it happened that there were three merry rascals hanging about th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now it happened that there were three merry rascals hanging about the market-place, who much preferred living on other people’s goods to working for their own living. Who acts: it, three merry rascals, market place, rascals. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1,
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now it happened that there were three merry rascals hanging about the market-place, who much preferred living on other people’s goods to working for their own living.

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**Who acts:** it, three merry rascals, market place, rascals · **What happens:** happen, be, hang, prefer, live, work · **To what, where:** goods

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, three merry rascals, market place, rascals), 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:pg7277:26:5
# text = Now it happened that there were three merry rascals hanging about the market-place, who much preferred living on other people’s goods to working for their own living.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
8	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	rascals	rascal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
10	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
11	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	much	much	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	preferred	prefer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	living	live	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	goods	goods	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	20	obl	_	_
26	to	to	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
27	working	work	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  | now |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **be** | past | three merry rascals |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hang** | gerund | three merry rascals *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the market place | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about place=Location |
| 4 | **prefer** | past | the market place |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **live** *not said to happen* | gerund | the market place *not said here* |  |  | other people's goods |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on goods=Location |
| 6 | **work** | gerund | the market place *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for rascals's own living | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for living=Beneficiary |
| 7 | **live** |  | rascals *= rascal* |  |  |  |  |  | nom living «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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