---
title: Once upon a time there was a man and a wife had too many children, a… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a man and a wife had too many children, and they could not get meat for them, so they took the three youngest and left them in a wood. Who acts: man. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Molly Whuppie, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Molly Whuppie, sentence 1

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Once upon a time there was a man and a wife had too many children, and they could not get meat for them, so they took the three youngest and left them in a wood.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** be, have, not get, take, leave · **To what, where:** many children, meat, youngest, man, wood

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Molly Whuppie. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg7439:25:1
# text = Once upon a time there was a man and a wife had too many children, and they could not get meat for them, so they took the three youngest and left them in a wood.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
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	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	too	too	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
22	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nsubj	_	_
31	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a man and a wife *not said here* |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | a man and a wife | many children |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **get** | could | man | meat |  |  |  | for children *= child* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent meat=Theme for they=Source |
| 4 | **take** | past | man | youngest |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent young=Theme |
| 5 | **leave** | past | man *not said here* | man |  | a wood |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme in wood=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:** «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.

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