---
title: So one day, when his little boy was four years old, he looked into t… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: So one day, when his little boy was four years old, he looked into the Book of Fate to see what would happen to him. Who acts: little boy, boy. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Fish and the Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Fish and the Ring, sentence 2

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So one day, when his little boy was four years old, he looked into the Book of Fate to see what would happen to him.

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**Who acts:** little boy, boy · **What happens:** be, look, see, happen · **To what, where:** magician · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Fish and the Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy, boy), 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:pg7439:41:2
# text = So one day, when his little boy was four years old, he looked into the Book of Fate to see what would happen to him.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Book	Book	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Fate	Fate	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	ccomp	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | magician's little boy |  |  |  | year | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | past | boy |  |  |  | day | into the Book of Fate | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent into book=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **happen** | would |  |  | magician |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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