---
title: The king and the queen were sad and sorry, but they said: “When the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The king and the queen were sad and sorry, but they said: “When the giant comes we will give him the hen-wife's boy; he will never know the difference.” Who acts: king, giant, we. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 15

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The king and the queen were sad and sorry, but they said: “When the giant comes we will give him the hen-wife's boy; he will never know the difference.”

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**Who acts:** king, giant, we · **What happens:** be, say, come, give, not know · **To what, where:** boy, giant, difference · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, giant, we), 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:pg7439:12:15
# text = The king and the queen were sad and sorry, but they said: “When the giant comes we will give him the hen-wife's boy; he will never know the difference.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	's	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	difference	difference	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the king and the queen |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the king and the queen *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present | the giant |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **give** *in a quote* | future | we | the hen wife's boy | giant |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient boy=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | future | giant | the difference |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer difference=Stimulus |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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