--- title: But the river giant was so slimy that the blow slid harmlessly off h… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: But the river giant was so slimy that the blow slid harmlessly off his green chest, and as Makoma stumbled and tried to regain his balance, the giant swung one of his long hairs around him and tripped him up. Who acts: river giant, blow, Makoma, giant. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/6/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/) / 6 # The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 2, sentence 6 But the river giant was so slimy that the blow slid harmlessly off his green chest, and as Makoma stumbled and tried to regain his balance, the giant swung one of his long hairs around him and tripped him up. **Who acts:** river giant, blow, Makoma, giant · **What happens:** be, slide, stumble, try, regain, swing · **To what, where:** green chest, balance, one, Makoma 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 (river giant, blow, Makoma, giant), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg3027:2:6 # text = But the river giant was so slimy that the blow slid harmlessly off his green chest, and as Makoma stumbled and tried to regain his balance, the giant swung one of his long hairs around him and tripped him up. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 3 river river NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 compound _ _ 4 giant giant NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 nsubj _ _ 5 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 cop _ _ 6 so so ADV RB _ 7 advmod _ _ 7 slimy slimy ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 8 that that SCONJ IN _ 11 mark _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 blow blow NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nsubj _ _ 11 slid slide VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 advcl _ _ 12 harmlessly harmlessly ADV RB _ 11 advmod _ _ 13 off off ADP IN _ 16 case _ _ 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 15 green green ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 16 amod _ _ 16 chest chest NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 18 and and CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 19 as as SCONJ IN _ 21 mark _ _ 20 Makoma Makoma PROPN NNP Number=Sing 21 nsubj _ _ 21 stumbled stumble VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 advcl _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 23 tried try VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 conj _ _ 24 to to PART TO _ 25 mark _ _ 25 regain regain VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 23 xcomp _ _ 26 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 27 nmod:poss _ _ 27 balance balance NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 giant giant NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 nsubj _ _ 31 swung swing VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ _ 32 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 31 obj _ _ 33 of of ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 34 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 36 nmod:poss _ _ 35 long long ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 36 amod _ _ 36 hairs hair NOUN NNS Number=Plur 32 nmod _ _ 37 around around ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 38 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 36 nmod _ _ 39 and and CCONJ CC _ 40 cc _ _ 40 tripped trip VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 conj _ _ 41 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 40 obj _ _ 42 up up ADP RP _ 40 compound:prt _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | the river giant | | | | | slimy *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **slide** | past | the blow | | | giant's green chest | | harmlessly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme off chest=Trajectory | | 3 | **stumble** | past | Makoma | | | | | | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **try** | past | Makoma *not said here* | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 5 | **regain** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Makoma *not said here* | Makoma's balance | | | | | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent balance=Theme | | 6 | **swing** | past | the giant | one of Makoma's long hairs around Makoma | | | | | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent one=Theme | | 7 | **trip up** | past | the giant *not said here* | Makoma | | | | | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Agent | | 8 | **balance** | | Makoma | | | | | | nom balance «state intransitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/5/) - next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/7/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/)