---
title: As soon as the giant’s hands were near their mouths they each made a… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as the giant’s hands were near their mouths they each made a snap, and began to bit them, so that his groans and shrieks might have been heard a mile off. Who acts: hands, feet, giant. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/9/107/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As soon as the giant’s hands were near their mouths they each made a snap, and began to bit them, so that his groans and shrieks might have been heard a mile off.

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**Who acts:** hands, feet, giant · **What happens:** be, make, begin, bit, hear off, groan · **To what, where:** snap, feet, groans

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hands, feet, giant), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:9:107
# text = As soon as the giant’s hands were near their mouths they each made a snap, and began to bit them, so that his groans and shrieks might have been heard a mile off.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	near	near	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
14	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	snap	snap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	bit	bit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
24	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	33	mark	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	groans	groan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	shrieks	shriek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	_
30	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	mile	mile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl:unmarked	_	_
36	off	off	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the giant's hands |  |  |  |  | as feet's mouths | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | past | feet *= foot* | a snap |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset snap=Product |
| 3 | **begin** | past | feet *= foot* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **bit** | to-infinitive | feet *= foot* *not said here* | feet *= foot* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hear off** | might · perfect · passive |  | giant's groans and shrieks |  |  |  | a mile *obl:unmarked* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 6 | **groan** |  | giant |  |  |  |  |  | nom groan «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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