---
title: “We are not made,” they said, “to hold out against a man who kills s… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “We are not made,” they said, “to hold out against a man who kills seven at a blow.” Who acts: officers, man. 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 78

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“We are not made,” they said, “to hold out against a man who kills seven at a blow.”

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**Who acts:** officers, man · **What happens:** not make, say, hold out, kill · **To what, where:** We, seven, blow · **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 (officers, man), 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:pg503:42:78
# text = “We are not made,” they said, “to hold out against a man who kills seven at a blow.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
14	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	against	against	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	kills	kill	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
20	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obj	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	blow	blow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **make** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | We |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | officers *= officer* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hold out** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | against a man | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against man=Location |
| 4 | **kill** *in a quote* | present | a man | seven |  | a blow |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seven=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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