---
title: Those fellows up there never opened their mouths, and were so stupid… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Those fellows up there never opened their mouths, and were so stupid that they let those few old tatters they have on their bodies burn.” Who acts: fellows, mouths, bodies. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Those fellows up there never opened their mouths, and were so stupid that they let those few old tatters they have on their bodies burn.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fellows, mouths, bodies · **What happens:** not open, be, let, have, burn · **To what, where:** mouths, few old tatters

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fellows, mouths, bodies), 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:pg503:13:65
# text = Those fellows up there never opened their mouths, and were so stupid that they let those few old tatters they have on their bodies burn.”
1	Those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	let	let	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
18	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	tatters	tatter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	burn	burn	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **open** | past | that fellows | dollars's mouths |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **let** | present | mouths *= mouth* | that few old tatters |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tatter=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | present | mouths *= mouth* | that few old tatters *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tatter=Patient |
| 5 | **burn** | present | mouths's bodies |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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