---
title: It happened that their parents were not on terms of friendship with… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It happened that their parents were not on terms of friendship with one another, on account of some old quarrel, which had, however, taken place so long ago, that they had quite forgotten what it was all about, and only kept up the feud from force of habit. Who acts: It, parents, old quarrel, place.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Sylvain and Jocosa, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It happened that their parents were not on terms of friendship with one another, on account of some old quarrel, which had, however, taken place so long ago, that they had quite forgotten what it was all about, and only kept up the feud from force of habit.

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**Who acts:** It, parents, old quarrel, place · **What happens:** happen, not be, have, take, forget, be · **To what, where:** terms, taken place, feud, force, old quarrel

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Sylvain and Jocosa. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, parents, old quarrel, place), 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:pg7277:9:2
# text = It happened that their parents were not on terms of friendship with one another, on account of some old quarrel, which had, however, taken place so long ago, that they had quite forgotten what it was all about, and only kept up the feud from force of habit.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	terms	term	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	friendship	friendship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	appos	_	_
14	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	21	det	_	_
20	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	quarrel	quarrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	however	however	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	amod	_	_
29	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	32	advmod	_	_
32	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
37	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	parataxis	_	_
39	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	38	obj	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
41	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	cop	_	_
42	all	all	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	about	about	ADV	RB	_	39	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
46	only	only	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	38	conj	_	_
48	up	up	ADP	RP	_	47	compound:prt	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	feud	feud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obj	_	_
51	from	from	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	force	force	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
53	of	of	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	habit	habit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | children's parents |  |  | terms and account of some old quarrel |  | of friendship | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | some old quarrel | taken place |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Patient |
| 4 | **take** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **forget** | past · perfect | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | place |  |  |  |  | about, all *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **keep up** | participle | parents *= parent* *not said here* | the feud |  | force of habit |  |  | vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent feud=Theme |
| 8 | **account** |  |  | some old quarrel |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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