---
title: Men have a strong, firm tread, so that if they happen to walk over p… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Men have a strong, firm tread, so that if they happen to walk over peas not one will stir, but girls trip, and slip, and slide, so that the peas roll all about.’ Who acts: Men, one, girls, peas. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Huntsmen, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Twelve Huntsmen, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Men have a strong, firm tread, so that if they happen to walk over peas not one will stir, but girls trip, and slip, and slide, so that the peas roll all about.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Men, one, girls, peas · **What happens:** have, happen, walk, not stir, trip, slide · **To what, where:** strong firm tread, peas, slip

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Huntsmen. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Men, one, girls, peas), 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:pg7277:43:27
# text = Men have a strong, firm tread, so that if they happen to walk over peas not one will stir, but girls trip, and slip, and slide, so that the peas roll all about.’
1	Men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
4	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	firm	firm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	tread	tread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	13	mark	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	fixed	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	happen	happen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	peas	pea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nsubj	_	_
20	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	stir	stir	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
25	trip	trip	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	slip	slip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	slide	slide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	37	mark	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	fixed	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	peas	pea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj	_	_
37	roll	roll	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
38	all	all	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	about	about	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | Men | a strong firm tread |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tread=Patient |
| 2 | **happen** | present | Men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **walk** | to-infinitive | Men *= man* *not said here* |  |  | peas |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over pea=Trajectory |
| 4 | **not** **stir** | future | one |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **trip** | present | girls | slip |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slip=Theme |
| 6 | **slide** | infinitive | girls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **roll** | present | the peas |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «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.

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**Text:** «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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