---
title: The men gave a loud cheer at these words, and pressed forward to say… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The men gave a loud cheer at these words, and pressed forward to say that they would serve Jack as faithfully as they had served his father. Who acts: men. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Giant Breaks His Neck., sentence 18

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The men gave a loud cheer at these words, and pressed forward to say that they would serve Jack as faithfully as they had served his father.

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** give, press forward, say, serve · **To what, where:** loud cheer, words, Jack, men · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (men), 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:pg540:21:18
# text = The men gave a loud cheer at these words, and pressed forward to say that they would serve Jack as faithfully as they had served his father.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	cheer	cheer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	pressed	press	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
13	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
20	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	advcl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | the men | a loud cheer |  | this words |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent cheer=Theme at word=Asset |
| 2 | **press forward** | participle | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **serve** | would | men *= man* | Jack |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jack=Attribute |
| 5 | **serve** | past · perfect · passive |  | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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