---
title: They were so huge that the spoons they used were as large as spades,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were so huge that the spoons they used were as large as spades, and their forks as big as hay-forks: with these they lifted whole bucketfuls of broth and great joints of meat out of an enormous pot which was set on the ground between them. Who acts: Giants, spoons, forks. A sentence of «The Cri
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 143

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were so huge that the spoons they used were as large as spades, and their forks as big as hay-forks: with these they lifted whole bucketfuls of broth and great joints of meat out of an enormous pot which was set on the ground between them.

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**Who acts:** Giants, spoons, forks · **What happens:** be, use, lift, set · **To what, where:** spoons, whole bucketfuls, enormous pot, ground

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Giants, spoons, forks), 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:pg2435:29:143
# text = They were so huge that the spoons they used were as large as spades, and their forks as big as hay-forks: with these they lifted whole bucketfuls of broth and great joints of meat out of an enormous pot which was set on the ground between them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	spoons	spoon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	as	as	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
13	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	spades	spade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	forks	fork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	as	as	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	hay	hay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	forks	fork	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	29	obl	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
30	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	bucketfuls	bucketful	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	broth	broth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	joints	joint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	out	out	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
42	enormous	enormous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
44	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	46	nsubj:pass	_	_
45	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux:pass	_	_
46	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	43	acl:relcl	_	_
47	on	on	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl	_	_
50	between	between	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Giants *= giant* |  |  |  |  | huge *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | past | Giants *= giant* | the spoons *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spoon=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | the spoons |  |  |  |  | as spades; large *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | Giants's forks |  |  |  |  | as hay forks | tree rules |
| 5 | **lift** | past | Giants *= giant* | whole bucketfuls of broth and great joints of meat |  | a enormous pot |  | with these | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent bucketful=Theme out pot=Destination |
| 6 | **set** | past · passive |  | a enormous pot |  | the ground between Giants |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme on ground=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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