---
title: The giant read: “Seven at a blow”; and thinking they were human bein… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The giant read: “Seven at a blow”; and thinking they were human beings the tailor had slain, he conceived a certain respect for the little man. Who acts: human beings, bushes, giant read. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 30

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The giant read: “Seven at a blow”; and thinking they were human beings the tailor had slain, he conceived a certain respect for the little man.

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**Who acts:** human beings, bushes, giant read · **What happens:** think, be, slay, conceive · **To what, where:** human beings, tailor, certain respect

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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 (human beings, bushes, giant read), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg503:42:30
# text = The giant read: “Seven at a blow”; and thinking they were human beings the tailor had slain, he conceived a certain respect for the little man.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	read	read	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	appos	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
13	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	slain	slay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	conceived	conceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	respect	respect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | human beings |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | bushes *= bush* | human beings |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **slay** | past · perfect · passive | human beings *not said here* | the tailor |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **conceive** | past | the giant read | a certain respect |  |  |  | for the little man | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent respect=Theme |

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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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