---
title: Once upon a time there lived within the dominions of the Emperor of… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived within the dominions of the Emperor of China three very clever Thieves. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 1

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Once upon a time there lived within the dominions of the Emperor of China three very clever Thieves.

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**What happens:** live · **To what, where:** three clever Thieves

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:15:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived within the dominions of the Emperor of China three very clever Thieves.
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	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	within	within	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dominions	dominion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Emperor	Emperor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	China	China	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	Thieves	thief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | three clever Thieves |  | there | time | within the dominions of the Emperor of China; once *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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- ← previous: [The Jackals and the Tiger., 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/14/40/)
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