---
title: How the giants had been killed seemed a little clearer now, but who… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: How the giants had been killed seemed a little clearer now, but who had done it was as great a puzzle as before. Who acts: sword. 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 69

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How the giants had been killed seemed a little clearer now, but who had done it was as great a puzzle as before.

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**Who acts:** sword · **What happens:** kill, seem, do, be · **To what, where:** giants

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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 (sword), 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:pg2435:30:69
# text = How the giants had been killed seemed a little clearer now, but who had done it was as great a puzzle as before.
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	advcl	_	_
7	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	_
10	clearer	clear	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	xcomp	_	_
11	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	xcomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	puzzle	puzzle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	parataxis	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	before	before	ADV	RB	_	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** | past · perfect · passive |  | the giants |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  | clear *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **do** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | sword |  |  |  |  | as a great puzzle | tree rules |

<!-- .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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