---
title: When he had fallen to the ground again without hurting himself, the… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he had fallen to the ground again without hurting himself, the giant said: “What! do you mean to tell me you haven’t the strength to hold down a feeble twig?” Who acts: tailor, giant, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 52

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When he had fallen to the ground again without hurting himself, the giant said: “What! do you mean to tell me you haven’t the strength to hold down a feeble twig?”

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**Who acts:** tailor, giant, you · **What happens:** fall, hurt, say, mean, tell, have · **To what, where:** tailor, giant, strength, feeble twig · **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 (tailor, giant, you), 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:pg503:42:52
# text = When he had fallen to the ground again without hurting himself, the giant said: “What! do you mean to tell me you haven’t the strength to hold down a feeble twig?”
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
9	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
10	hurting	hurt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
20	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl	_	_
33	down	down	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	twig	twig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past · perfect | tailor |  |  |  | again | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 2 | **hurt** | gerund | tailor *not said here* | tailor |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer himself=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the giant |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **mean** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | the giant *= giant* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **have** *in a quote* | present | you | the strength |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strength=Patient |
| 7 | **hold down** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | a feeble twig |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent twig=Theme |

<!-- .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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