---
title: “Can’t you open the big door?” said the giants; “we shall hardly be… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Can’t you open the big door?” said the giants; “we shall hardly be able to get in at this one.” Who acts: you, giants, we. 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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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 54

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“Can’t you open the big door?” said the giants; “we shall hardly be able to get in at this one.”

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**Who acts:** you, giants, we · **What happens:** not open, say, be, get in · **To what, where:** big door · **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 (you, giants, we), 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:pg2435:30:54
# text = “Can’t you open the big door?” said the giants; “we shall hardly be able to get in at this one.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	open	open	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
18	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
26	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **open** *in a quote* | can | you | the big door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the giants |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | shall | we |  |  |  |  | able, hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **get in** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at this one | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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