---
title: There was once a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a litt… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a little hut close to the sea, and the fisherman used to go down every day to fish; and he would fish and fish. Who acts: wife, fisherman. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was once a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a little hut close to the sea, and the fisherman used to go down every day to fish; and he would fish and fish.

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**Who acts:** wife, fisherman · **What happens:** live together, use, go down · **To what, where:** little hut

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, fisherman), 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:pg7277:54:1
# text = There was once a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a little hut close to the sea, and the fisherman used to go down every day to fish; and he would fish and fish.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	together	together	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	fisherman	fisherman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	down	down	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
36	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live together** | past | his wife |  |  | a little hut |  | together *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hut=Location |
| 2 | **use** | past | the fisherman |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **go down** | to-infinitive | the fisherman *not said here* |  |  |  | day | to fish; down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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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