---
title: “We mayn’t be able to kill the giant, but we certainly can’t run awa… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “We mayn’t be able to kill the giant, but we certainly can’t run away till we have tried,” answered Rosald. Who acts: We, Rosald. 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 116

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“We mayn’t be able to kill the giant, but we certainly can’t run away till we have tried,” answered Rosald.

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**Who acts:** We, Rosald · **What happens:** not be, kill, not run away, try, answer · **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, Rosald), 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:pg3282:12:116
# text = “We mayn’t be able to kill the giant, but we certainly can’t run away till we have tried,” answered Rosald.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	away	away	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
25	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
26	Rosald	Rosald	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | may | We |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | We *not said here* | the giant |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent giant=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **run away** *in a quote* | can | we |  |  |  |  | away, certainly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **try** *in a quote* | present · perfect | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Rosald |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=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 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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