---
title: I could not marry a frightful giant as tall as a tower, who eats up… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I could not marry a frightful giant as tall as a tower, who eats up people as a monkey eats chestnuts, and who talks so loud that anybody who has to listen to him becomes quite deaf. Who acts: I, tower, monkey, anybody. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldiloc
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 114

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I could not marry a frightful giant as tall as a tower, who eats up people as a monkey eats chestnuts, and who talks so loud that anybody who has to listen to him becomes quite deaf.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, tower, monkey, anybody · **What happens:** not marry, eat up, eat, talk, have, listen · **To what, where:** frightful giant, people, chestnuts, monkey

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, tower, monkey, anybody), 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:pg503:28:114
# text = I could not marry a frightful giant as tall as a tower, who eats up people as a monkey eats chestnuts, and who talks so loud that anybody who has to listen to him becomes quite deaf.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	frightful	frightful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	eats	eat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	eats	eat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
22	chestnuts	chestnut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	talks	talk	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
30	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	37	nsubj	_	_
31	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
32	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	_
37	becomes	become	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
38	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	deaf	deaf	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **marry** | could | I | a frightful giant |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent giant=Patient |
| 2 | **eat up** | present | a tower | people |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Patient |
| 3 | **eat** | present | a monkey | chestnuts |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chestnut=Patient |
| 4 | **talk** | present |  |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **have** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **listen** | to-infinitive |  |  | monkey |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to he=Theme |
| 7 | **become** | present | anybody |  |  |  |  | deaf *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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