---
title: Niels was too far away to hear their talk, but from their gestures h… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Niels was too far away to hear their talk, but from their gestures he could guess what was happening, and thought it good fun. Who acts: Niels, giants. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/30/15/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 15

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Niels was too far away to hear their talk, but from their gestures he could guess what was happening, and thought it good fun.

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**Who acts:** Niels, giants · **What happens:** be, guess, happen, think, talk, gesture · **To what, where:** gestures, talk · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Niels, giants), 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:pg2435:30:15
# text = Niels was too far away to hear their talk, but from their gestures he could guess what was happening, and thought it good fun.
1	Niels	Niels	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	hear	hear	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	gestures	gesture	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	happening	happen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	fun	fun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Niels |  |  |  |  | away, hear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **guess** | could | Niels |  |  | giants's gestures |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Niels *not said here* | talk |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent it=Theme fun=Attribute |
| 5 | **talk** |  | giants *= giant* |  |  |  |  |  | nom talk «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **gesture** |  | giants *= giant* |  |  |  |  |  | nom gesture «act intransitive»: poss=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:** «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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