---
title: The men, when they heard the tailor saying these words, were so terr… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The men, when they heard the tailor saying these words, were so terrified that they fled as if pursued by a wild army, and didn’t dare go near him again. Who acts: trousers, tailor, men. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 135

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The men, when they heard the tailor saying these words, were so terrified that they fled as if pursued by a wild army, and didn’t dare go near him again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** trousers, tailor, men · **What happens:** hear, say, be, flee, pursue, not dare · **To what, where:** tailor, words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (trousers, tailor, men), 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:pg503:42:135
# text = The men, when they heard the tailor saying these words, were so terrified that they fled as if pursued by a wild army, and didn’t dare go near him again.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	terrified	terrified	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	xcomp	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	dare	dare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
31	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
32	near	near	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
34	again	again	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | trousers | the tailor |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer tailor=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the tailor *not said here* | this words |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | the men |  |  |  |  | terrified *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **flee** | past | trousers |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pursue** *a condition, not said to happen* | participle | trousers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by a wild army | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent by army=Trajectory |
| 6 | **not** **dare** | past · do-support | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **not** **go** | infinitive | the men *not said here* |  |  |  | again | near man | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme near he=Location |

<!-- .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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