---
title: “How can we possibly fight against a giant that has killed fifty kni… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “How can we possibly fight against a giant that has killed fifty knights?” cried Geirald, when they were outside the castle. Who acts: we, Geirald, parents. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 113

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“How can we possibly fight against a giant that has killed fifty knights?” cried Geirald, when they were outside the castle.

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**Who acts:** we, Geirald, parents · **What happens:** fight, kill, cry, be · **To what, where:** giant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, Geirald, parents), 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:pg3282:12:113
# text = “How can we possibly fight against a giant that has killed fifty knights?” cried Geirald, when they were outside the castle.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	fight	fight	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
7	against	against	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
17	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	Geirald	Geirald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fight** *in a quote* | can | we |  |  |  |  | against a giant; possibly *property* | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **kill** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | a giant |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer knight=Result |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Geirald |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | parents *= parent* |  |  |  |  | outside the castle | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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