---
title: They told him that their husbands had been killed by the giants, who… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They told him that their husbands had been killed by the giants, who had then condemned them to be starved to death because they would not eat the flesh of their own dead husbands. Who acts: giants. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Jack the Giant-killer, with its de
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Jack the Giant-killer, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They told him that their husbands had been killed by the giants, who had then condemned them to be starved to death because they would not eat the flesh of their own dead husbands.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** giants · **What happens:** tell, kill, have, condemn, starve, not eat · **To what, where:** Jack, husbands, giants, flesh · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Jack the Giant-killer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (giants), 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:pg503:54:19
# text = They told him that their husbands had been killed by the giants, who had then condemned them to be starved to death because they would not eat the flesh of their own dead husbands.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	husbands	husband	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	condemned	condemn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	starved	starve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	ccomp	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
33	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	husbands	husband	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | giants *= giant* |  | Jack |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **kill** | past · perfect · passive | the giants | giants's husbands |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | the giants |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **condemn** | past |  | giants *= giant* |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **starve** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | to death | tree rules |
| 6 | **not** **eat** | would | giants *= giant* | the flesh of giants's own dead husbands |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=Patient |

<!-- .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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