---
title: The giant didn’t know what to say, for he couldn’t have believed it… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The giant didn’t know what to say, for he couldn’t have believed it of the little fellow. Who acts: giant. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 35

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The giant didn’t know what to say, for he couldn’t have believed it of the little fellow.

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**Who acts:** giant · **What happens:** not know, say, not believe · **To what, where:** play · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (giant), 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:pg503:42:35
# text = The giant didn’t know what to say, for he couldn’t have believed it of the little fellow.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | the giant |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **believe** | could · perfect · passive |  | play |  |  |  | of the little fellow | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme it=Eventuality |

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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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