---
title: Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it was neither… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it was neither in my time nor in your time nor in any one else's time, there was an old man and an old woman, and they had one son, and they lived in a great forest. Who acts: it, old man, man. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/20/1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / [Jack and His Golden Snuff-box](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/20/) / 1

# English Fairy Tales, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it was neither in my time nor in your time nor in any one else's time, there was an old man and an old woman, and they had one son, and they lived in a great forest.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, old man, man · **What happens:** be, have, live · **To what, where:** one son, great forest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Golden Snuff-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, old man, man), 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:pg7439:20:1
# text = Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it was neither in my time nor in your time nor in any one else's time, there was an old man and an old woman, and they had one son, and they lived in a great forest.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	0	root	_	_
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	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
21	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	24	cc	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
25	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	31	cc	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	_
29	else	else	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	34	expl	_	_
34	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
35	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	parataxis	_	_
46	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	47	nummod	_	_
47	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
50	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
51	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	conj	_	_
52	in	in	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  | in my time nor your time nor any one's time | neither *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** | past | a old man and a old woman |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | man | one son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 4 | **live** | past | man |  |  | a great forest |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in forest=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse, 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/19/33/)
- next →: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/20/2/)
- ↑ back to [Jack and His Golden Snuff-box](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/20/)