---
title: And he scratched his huge head for several minutes, for giants' mind… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And he scratched his huge head for several minutes, for giants' minds always move slowly. Who acts: giant, minds, giants. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 90

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And he scratched his huge head for several minutes, for giants' minds always move slowly.

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**Who acts:** giant, minds, giants · **What happens:** scratch, move, mind · **To what, where:** huge head

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (giant, minds, giants), 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:pg3027:25:90
# text = And he scratched his huge head for several minutes, for giants' minds always move slowly.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
12	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	minds	mind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	16	advmod	_	_
16	move	move	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scratch** | past | giant | giant's huge head |  |  | minute |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 2 | **move** | present | giants's minds |  |  |  |  | always, slowly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **mind** |  | giants |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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