---
title: In the days of the great Prince Arthur, there lived a mighty magicia… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: In the days of the great Prince Arthur, there lived a mighty magician, called Merlin, the most learned and skilful enchanter the world has ever seen. Who acts: world. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 1

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In the days of the great Prince Arthur, there lived a mighty magician, called Merlin, the most learned and skilful enchanter the world has ever seen.

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**Who acts:** world · **What happens:** live, call, learn, see · **To what, where:** mighty magician, learned enchanter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (world), 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:pg7439:28:1
# text = In the days of the great Prince Arthur, there lived a mighty magician, called Merlin, the most learned and skilful enchanter the world has ever seen.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Arthur	Arthur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
11	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
17	Merlin	Merlin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
20	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	21	advmod	_	_
21	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	skilful	skilful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
24	enchanter	enchanter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	29	advmod	_	_
29	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a mighty magician |  | there | day |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme magician=Location |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a mighty magician *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **learn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | present · perfect | the world | the learned enchanter *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer enchanter=Stimulus |

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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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