---
title: He could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the three headless gi… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the three headless giants lying in a heap in the courtyard, and could not imagine what had taken place. Who acts: Niels, three headless giants. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency t
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the three headless giants lying in a heap in the courtyard, and could not imagine what had taken place.

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**Who acts:** Niels, three headless giants · **What happens:** believe, see, lie, not imagine, take · **To what, where:** eyes, three headless giants, heap, place

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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, three headless 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:pg2435:30:66
# text = He could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the three headless giants lying in a heap in the courtyard, and could not imagine what had taken place.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
12	headless	headless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
14	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	ccomp	_	_
29	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | could | Niels | Niels's eyes |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | Niels | the three headless giants |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer giant=Stimulus |
| 3 | **lie** | gerund | the three headless giants *not said here* |  |  | a heap |  | in the courtyard | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in heap=Location |
| 4 | **not** **imagine** | could | Niels *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | place |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme place=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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