---
title: The richest was named first; the poorest, he was told, was a young g… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The richest was named first; the poorest, he was told, was a young girl who lived alone in a little cottage at the far end of the village. Who acts: young girl. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The richest was named first; the poorest, he was told, was a young girl who lived alone in a little cottage at the far end of the village.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** young girl · **What happens:** name, tell, be, live · **To what, where:** richest, poorest, young girl, little cottage · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young girl), 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:pg7277:44:15
# text = The richest was named first; the poorest, he was told, was a young girl who lived alone in a little cottage at the far end of the village.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	richest	rich	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	poorest	poor	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	iobj	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	far	far	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **name** | past · passive |  | the richest |  |  |  | first *property* | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | the poorest |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient girl=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | a young girl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **live** | past | a young girl |  |  | a little cottage | at the far end of the village | alone *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cottage=Location |

<!-- .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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