---
title: ‘He is making game of us,’ they said; and the shoemakers seized thei… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘He is making game of us,’ they said; and the shoemakers seized their yard measures and the tanners their leathern aprons and they gave Big Klaus a good beating. Who acts: bushel, pieces, shoemakers. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, with 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus, sentence 143

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘He is making game of us,’ they said; and the shoemakers seized their yard measures and the tanners their leathern aprons and they gave Big Klaus a good beating.

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**Who acts:** bushel, pieces, shoemakers · **What happens:** make, say, seize, give, measure · **To what, where:** game, yard measures, good beating, Big Klaus · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bushel, pieces, shoemakers), 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:pg640:41:143
# text = ‘He is making game of us,’ they said; and the shoemakers seized their yard measures and the tanners their leathern aprons and they gave Big Klaus a good beating.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
5	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	shoemakers	shoemaker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	measures	measure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	tanners	tanner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	leathern	leathern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	aprons	apron	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
29	Big	Big	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	Klaus	Klaus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	beating	beating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present · progressive | bushel | game of us |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent game=Product |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | pieces *= piece* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **seize** | past | the shoemakers | pieces's yard measures and the tanners  pieces's leathern aprons |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent measure=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | past | pieces *= piece* | a good beating | Big Klaus |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent klaus=Recipient beating=Theme |
| 5 | **measure** |  | pieces *= piece* |  |  |  |  |  | nom measure «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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