---
title: As it was impossible he could be more weary than he was, he fell asl… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As it was impossible he could be more weary than he was, he fell asleep, and, after reposing himself some time, began to snore so frightfully that the poor children were no less afraid of him than when he held up his great knife and was going to cut their throats. Who acts: ogre, poor children. A se
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 121

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As it was impossible he could be more weary than he was, he fell asleep, and, after reposing himself some time, began to snore so frightfully that the poor children were no less afraid of him than when he held up his great knife and was going to cut their throats.

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**Who acts:** ogre, poor children · **What happens:** be, fall, repose, begin, snore, hold up · **To what, where:** ogre, great knife, throats

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ogre, poor children), 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:pg503:33:121
# text = As it was impossible he could be more weary than he was, he fell asleep, and, after reposing himself some time, began to snore so frightfully that the poor children were no less afraid of him than when he held up his great knife and was going to cut their throats.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
9	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
16	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	reposing	repose	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
26	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	snore	snore	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	frightfully	frightfully	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	nsubj	_	_
35	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
36	no	no	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	38	advmod	_	_
38	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	advcl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obl	_	_
41	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	44	mark	_	_
42	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	44	advmod	_	_
43	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	_
45	up	up	ADP	RP	_	44	compound:prt	_	_
46	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
47	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
50	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
51	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	conj	_	_
52	to	to	PART	TO	_	53	mark	_	_
53	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	xcomp	_	_
54	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
55	throats	throat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | impossible *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | could | ogre |  |  |  |  | weary *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | past | ogre |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fall** | past | ogre |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **repose** | gerund |  | ogre |  |  | time |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location himself=Theme |
| 6 | **begin** | past | ogre *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **snore** | to-infinitive | ogre *not said here* |  |  |  |  | frightfully *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is** | past | the poor children |  |  |  |  | of ogre; afraid, less *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **hold up** | past | ogre | ogre's great knife |  |  |  |  | vn support-15.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot knife=Theme |
| 10 | **go** | past · progressive | ogre *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 11 | **cut** | to-infinitive | ogre *not said here* | children's throats |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset throat=Product |

<!-- .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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