---
title: “You are great useless creatures,” said he, “who couldn’t even outwi… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “You are great useless creatures,” said he, “who couldn’t even outwit that little dwarf. Who acts: You, great useless creatures, Paul. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 55

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“You are great useless creatures,” said he, “who couldn’t even outwit that little dwarf.

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**Who acts:** You, great useless creatures, Paul · **What happens:** be, say, not outwit · **To what, where:** great useless creatures, little dwarf · **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 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, great useless creatures, Paul), 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:pg2435:31:55
# text = “You are great useless creatures,” said he, “who couldn’t even outwit that little dwarf.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
16	even	even	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	outwit	outwit	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	dwarf	dwarf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | You | great useless creatures |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | great useless creatures |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **outwit** *in a quote* | could | Paul | little dwarf |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |

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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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