---
title: Once upon a time there were two brothers whose father was dead, and… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there were two brothers whose father was dead, and who lived alone with their mother in a big house in a well-cultivated valley. Who acts: two brothers, father. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Stone Lion., with its d
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Stone Lion., sentence 1

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Once upon a time there were two brothers whose father was dead, and who lived alone with their mother in a big house in a well-cultivated valley.

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**Who acts:** two brothers, father · **What happens:** be, live, cultivate

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Stone Lion.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two brothers, father), 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:pg75000:18:1
# text = Once upon a time there were two brothers whose father was dead, and who lived alone with their mother in a big house in a well-cultivated valley.
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	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
9	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	cultivated	cultivate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	amod	_	_
30	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | two brothers |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | father |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **live** | past |  |  |  |  |  | with brothers's mother in a big house in a cultivated valley; who *nsubj*; alone *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with mother=Location |
| 4 | **cultivate** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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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