---
title: At least, if the cunning hero, human or animal, is the weaker, like… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At least, if the cunning hero, human or animal, is the weaker, like Odysseus, Brer Rabbit, and many others, the story-teller sees little in intellect but superior cunning, by which tiny Jack gets the better of the giants. Who acts: cunning hero, story teller, tiny Jack. A sentence of «The Orange Fai
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 1, sentence 18

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At least, if the cunning hero, human or animal, is the weaker, like Odysseus, Brer Rabbit, and many others, the story-teller sees little in intellect but superior cunning, by which tiny Jack gets the better of the giants.

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**Who acts:** cunning hero, story teller, tiny Jack · **What happens:** be, see, get · **To what, where:** many others, intellect cunning

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cunning hero, story teller, tiny Jack), 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:pg3027:1:18
# text = At least, if the cunning hero, human or animal, is the weaker, like Odysseus, Brer Rabbit, and many others, the story-teller sees little in intellect but superior cunning, by which tiny Jack gets the better of the giants.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	hero	hero	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	weaker	weak	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Odysseus	Odysseus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
24	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	teller	teller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	sees	see	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
32	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	intellect	intellect	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	superior	superior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	conj	_	_
37	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
39	by	by	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	43	obl	_	_
41	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
43	gets	get	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	43	xcomp	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the cunning hero at least |  |  |  |  | like Odysseus and Brer Rabbit; weak *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | present | the story teller | many others |  | intellect cunning |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer little=Stimulus |
| 3 | **get** | present | tiny Jack |  |  |  |  | good *property* | 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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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