---
title: He found the giants busy trying to kindle a fire and get some light;… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He found the giants busy trying to kindle a fire and get some light; but after a bit someone cried out: Who acts: best, someone. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 57

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He found the giants busy trying to kindle a fire and get some light; but after a bit someone cried out:

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**Who acts:** best, someone · **What happens:** find, try, kindle, get, cry out · **To what, where:** fire, light

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (best, someone), 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:pg3282:23:57
# text = He found the giants busy trying to kindle a fire and get some light; but after a bit someone cried out:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
6	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	kindle	kindle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
13	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	14	det	_	_
14	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	after	after	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
20	someone	someone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	21	nsubj	_	_
21	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | best *= good* |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | gerund | best *= good* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **kindle** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | best *= good* *not said here* | a fire |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition fire=Patient |
| 4 | **get** | infinitive | best *= good* *not said here* | some light |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer light=Stimulus |
| 5 | **cry out** *speech: express* | past | someone |  |  |  | after a bit |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «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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