---
title: There was silence for a while, and then the giant spoke softly: 'It… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was silence for a while, and then the giant spoke softly: 'It is good, O Makoma!' he said. ' Who acts: silence, Makoma. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 2, sentence 29

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There was silence for a while, and then the giant spoke softly: 'It is good, O Makoma!' he said. '

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**Who acts:** silence, Makoma · **What happens:** be, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (silence, Makoma), 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:pg3027:2:29
# text = There was silence for a while, and then the giant spoke softly: 'It is good, O Makoma!' he said. '
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
3	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
12	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	_
13	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	21	discourse	_	_
21	Makoma	Makoma	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | giant, softly, speak *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | silence |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Makoma |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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 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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