---
title: But what was my terror when I heard the giant groping among the bodi… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But what was my terror when I heard the giant groping among the bodies, and, fancying myself, cut the half of my hip off, and took it with him to be roasted. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 126

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But what was my terror when I heard the giant groping among the bodies, and, fancying myself, cut the half of my hip off, and took it with him to be roasted.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, hear, grope, fancy, cut off, take · **To what, where:** terror, giant groping bodies, myself, half

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg540:8:126
# text = But what was my terror when I heard the giant groping among the bodies, and, fancying myself, cut the half of my hip off, and took it with him to be roasted.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
10	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
11	groping	grope	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	amod	_	_
12	among	among	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	fancying	fancy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
19	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	cut	cut	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	hip	hip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	off	off	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	roasted	roast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | my terror |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past | I | the giant groping bodies |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer body=Stimulus |
| 3 | **grope** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn rummage-35.5-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fancy** | gerund | I *not said here* | myself |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer myself=Stimulus |
| 5 | **cut off** | infinitive |  | the half of my hip |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector half=Eventuality |
| 6 | **take** | past | I *not said here* | half |  |  |  | with giant | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 7 | **roast** | to-infinitive · passive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V» |

<!-- .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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