---
title: Once upon a time there lived a poor man and his wife who had only on… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a poor man and his wife who had only one child, and this Boy, as it happened, was born with a deformed head, which projected in front and behind, and gave him a very ugly appearance. Who acts: wife, it. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, 
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head., sentence 1

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Once upon a time there lived a poor man and his wife who had only one child, and this Boy, as it happened, was born with a deformed head, which projected in front and behind, and gave him a very ugly appearance.

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**Who acts:** wife, it · **What happens:** live, have, happen, bear, deform, project · **To what, where:** poor man, one child, front, ugly appearance, child

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, it), 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:pg75000:16:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived a poor man and his wife who had only one child, and this Boy, as it happened, was born with a deformed head, which projected in front and behind, and gave him a very ugly appearance.
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	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	xcomp	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	deformed	deform	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	amod	_	_
32	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
35	projected	project	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
43	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	iobj	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
45	very	very	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	appearance	appearance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	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 |  | a poor man and his wife |  | there | time | this Boy *obl*; once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 2 | **have** | past | his wife | one child |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 3 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bear** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  | with a deformed head | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S» |
| 5 | **deform** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **project** | past |  |  |  | front |  | which *nsubj* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in front=Location |
| 7 | **give** | past |  | a ugly appearance | child |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient appearance=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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