---
title: Their heads were bigger than their little bodies, and their hammers… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Their heads were bigger than their little bodies, and their hammers twice the size of themselves, but the strongest men on earth could not have handled their iron clubs more stoutly or given lustier blows. Who acts: heads. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their heads were bigger than their little bodies, and their hammers twice the size of themselves, but the strongest men on earth could not have handled their iron clubs more stoutly or given lustier blows.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** heads · **What happens:** be, not handle, give · **To what, where:** strongest men, lustier blows

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (heads), 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:pg641:25:27
# text = Their heads were bigger than their little bodies, and their hammers twice the size of themselves, but the strongest men on earth could not have handled their iron clubs more stoutly or given lustier blows.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	hammers	hammer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
13	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	strongest	strong	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
27	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
28	handled	handle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	clubs	club	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
32	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	33	advmod	_	_
33	stoutly	stoutly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	conj	_	_
36	lustier	lusty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	37	amod	_	_
37	blows	blow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | smiths's heads |  |  |  |  | than smiths's little bodies; smiths's hammers  the size of hammers *obl*; big *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **handle** | could · perfect · passive |  | the strongest men on earth |  |  |  | stoutly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **give** | participle |  | lustier blows |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blow=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.

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**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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