---
title: They then saw that they could not kill him with little stones, but t… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They then saw that they could not kill him with little stones, but they had still the big one left. Who acts: Hans. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/36/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/) / 36

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They then saw that they could not kill him with little stones, but they had still the big one left.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hans · **What happens:** see, not kill, have, leave · **To what, where:** Hans, big one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hans), 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:pg5615:13:36
# text = They then saw that they could not kill him with little stones, but they had still the big one left.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	still	still	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Hans *= han* |  |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **kill** | could | Hans *= han* | Hans |  |  |  | with little stones | vn murder-42.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with stone=Instrument |
| 3 | **have** | past | Hans *= han* | the big one |  |  | still |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 4 | **leave** | participle |  | the big one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/37/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/13/)