---
title: 'It was a very difficult task, and the giant must certainly have kil… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'It was a very difficult task, and the giant must certainly have killed her or she would have been back long ago,' remarked another. Who acts: creature, Fish. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 29

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'It was a very difficult task, and the giant must certainly have killed her or she would have been back long ago,' remarked another.

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**Who acts:** creature, Fish · **What happens:** be, kill, remark · **To what, where:** difficult task, giant, another

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (creature, Fish), 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:pg3027:26:29
# text = 'It was a very difficult task, and the giant must certainly have killed her or she would have been back long ago,' remarked another.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
22	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
24	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	_
27	remarked	remark	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
28	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | creature | a difficult task |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** | must · perfect · passive |  | the giant |  |  |  | ago, certainly *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer she=Result |
| 3 | **is** | would · perfect | Fish |  |  |  |  | back *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **remark** *speech: assert* | participle | creature *not said here* | another |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent another=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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