---
title: At first the giant's daughter did not know how to help Nix Nought No… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the giant's daughter did not know how to help Nix Nought Nothing; but she cut off first her fingers and then her toes, and made steps of them, and he clomb the tree and got all the eggs safe till he came just to the bottom, and then one was broken. Who acts: daughter, giant. A sentence of «
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 41

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At first the giant's daughter did not know how to help Nix Nought Nothing; but she cut off first her fingers and then her toes, and made steps of them, and he clomb the tree and got all the eggs safe till he came just to the bottom, and then one was broken.

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**Who acts:** daughter, giant · **What happens:** not know, help, cut off, make, clomb, get · **To what, where:** Nix, fingers, steps, eggs, bottom, one · **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 (daughter, giant), 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:pg7439:12:41
# text = At first the giant's daughter did not know how to help Nix Nought Nothing; but she cut off first her fingers and then her toes, and made steps of them, and he clomb the tree and got all the eggs safe till he came just to the bottom, and then one was broken.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
13	Nix	Nix	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	Nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	15	compound	_	_
15	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	23	advmod	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	toes	toe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
31	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	clomb	clomb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	appos	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	conj	_	_
42	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	44	det:predet	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	eggs	egg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obj	_	_
45	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	xcomp	_	_
46	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
47	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj	_	_
48	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	advcl	_	_
49	just	just	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
50	to	to	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
55	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	56	advmod	_	_
56	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	58	nsubj:pass	_	_
57	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	58	aux:pass	_	_
58	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	48	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | the giant's daughter |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **help** | to-infinitive |  | Nix |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cut off** | past | daughter | daughter's fingers and daughter's toes |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector finger=Eventuality |
| 4 | **make** | past | daughter *not said here* | steps of steps |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset step=Product |
| 5 | **clomb** |  | giant |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **get** | past | giant *not said here* | all eggs |  |  |  | safe *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer egg=Stimulus |
| 7 | **come** | past | giant |  |  | the bottom |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bottom=Initial\_Location |
| 8 | **break** | past · passive |  | one |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 9 | **step** |  |  | steps *= step* |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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