---
title: They were taller than mortal men, and the young man had a staff in h… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were taller than mortal men, and the young man had a staff in his hand with golden wings on it, and two golden serpents twisted round it, and he had wings on his cap and on his shoes. Who acts: lady, young man, man. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were taller than mortal men, and the young man had a staff in his hand with golden wings on it, and two golden serpents twisted round it, and he had wings on his cap and on his shoes.

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**Who acts:** lady, young man, man · **What happens:** be, have, twist · **To what, where:** staff, hand, two golden serpents, wings, cap

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lady, young man, man), 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:pg503:27:32
# text = They were taller than mortal men, and the young man had a staff in his hand with golden wings on it, and two golden serpents twisted round it, and he had wings on his cap and on his shoes.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	taller	tall	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	mortal	mortal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
26	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
28	twisted	twist	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
29	round	round	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
35	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obj	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
40	on	on	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | lady |  |  |  |  | than mortal men; two golden serpents *obl*; tall *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | the young man | a staff |  | man's hand |  | with golden wings on hand | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent staff=Patient |
| 3 | **twist** | participle |  | two golden serpents *not said here* |  | hand |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme round it=Trajectory |
| 4 | **have** | past | man | wings |  | man's cap and man's shoes |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=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 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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