---
title: Jack’s mother shrank back, and it was well she did so, for just as t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Jack’s mother shrank back, and it was well she did so, for just as the Giant took hold of the last branch of the Beanstalk, Jack cut the stem quite through and darted from the spot. Who acts: mother, it, Jack. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck., with its de
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Giant Breaks His Neck., sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Jack’s mother shrank back, and it was well she did so, for just as the Giant took hold of the last branch of the Beanstalk, Jack cut the stem quite through and darted from the spot.

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**Who acts:** mother, it, Jack · **What happens:** shrink back, be, take, cut, dart, hold · **To what, where:** hold, stem, spot, last branch

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mother, it, Jack), 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:pg540:21:1
# text = Jack’s mother shrank back, and it was well she did so, for just as the Giant took hold of the last branch of the Beanstalk, Jack cut the stem quite through and darted from the spot.
1	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	’s	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	shrank	shrink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	_
20	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
21	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Beanstalk	Beanstalk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	stem	stem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	through	through	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	darted	dart	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	conj	_	_
38	from	from	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shrink back** | past | Jack's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | do, well *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past |  | hold of the last branch of the Beanstalk |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 4 | **cut** | past | Jack | the stem |  |  |  | through *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stem=Product |
| 5 | **dart** | participle | Jack *not said here* |  |  | the spot |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from spot=Trajectory |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | the last branch of the Beanstalk |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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