---
title: Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in m… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one else's time, there was a girl whose mother had died, and her father had married again. Who acts: it, mother, time. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Well of the World's E
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Well of the World's End, sentence 1

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Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one else's time, there was a girl whose mother had died, and her father had married again.

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**Who acts:** it, mother, time · **What happens:** not be, die, marry · **To what, where:** father

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Well of the World's End. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, mother, time), 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:pg7439:47:1
# text = Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one else's time, there was a girl whose mother had died, and her father had married again.
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	,	_	20	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	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	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
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	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	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	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	25	cc	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	32	cc	_	_
28	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	_
30	else	else	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	35	expl	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
38	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
40	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	died	die	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	37	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
44	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj:pass	_	_
46	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
47	married	marry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl:relcl	_	_
48	again	again	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | it |  |  |  | in my time nor your time; time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **die** | past · perfect | mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **marry** | past · perfect · passive | my time nor your time *not said here* | mother's father |  |  | again |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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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