---
title: Scarcely had he entered the forest when he beheld a monstrous giant… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had he entered the forest when he beheld a monstrous giant dragging along by the hair of their heads a handsome knight and his lady. Who acts: Scarcely, monstrous giant. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Jack the Giant-killer, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Jack the Giant-killer, sentence 49

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Scarcely had he entered the forest when he beheld a monstrous giant dragging along by the hair of their heads a handsome knight and his lady.

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**Who acts:** Scarcely, monstrous giant · **What happens:** have, enter, behold, drag · **To what, where:** forest, monstrous giant

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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 (Scarcely, monstrous 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:pg503:54:49
# text = Scarcely had he entered the forest when he beheld a monstrous giant dragging along by the hair of their heads a handsome knight and his lady.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	dragging	drag	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	along	along	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	handsome	handsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **enter** | past | Scarcely | the forest |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme forest=Destination |
| 3 | **behold** | past | Scarcely | a monstrous giant |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer giant=Stimulus |
| 4 | **drag** | gerund | a monstrous giant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the hair of giants's heads; along *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by hair=Location |

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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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