---
title: The idiot obeyed, but at the first taste of the apple the giant stag… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The idiot obeyed, but at the first taste of the apple the giant staggered, and as the long yellow finger of the woman touched him he fell dead. Who acts: idiot, giant, long yellow finger, finger. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 4

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The idiot obeyed, but at the first taste of the apple the giant staggered, and as the long yellow finger of the woman touched him he fell dead.

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**Who acts:** idiot, giant, long yellow finger, finger · **What happens:** obey, stagger, touch, fall, taste · **To what, where:** first taste, giant, apple

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (idiot, giant, long yellow finger, finger), 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:pg3454:28:4
# text = The idiot obeyed, but at the first taste of the apple the giant staggered, and as the long yellow finger of the woman touched him he fell dead.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	idiot	idiot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	obeyed	obey	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	amod	_	_
9	taste	taste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	apple	apple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	staggered	stagger	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
30	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **obey** | past | the idiot |  |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **stagger** | past | the giant |  |  | the first taste of the apple |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at taste=Trajectory |
| 3 | **touch** | past | the long yellow finger of the woman | giant |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **fall** | past | finger |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **taste** |  |  | the apple |  |  |  |  | nom taste «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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