---
title: Now these funny Pygmies, as I told you before, had a Giant for their… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Now these funny Pygmies, as I told you before, had a Giant for their neighbor and brother, who was bigger, if possible, than they were little. Who acts: I, funny Pygmies, brother, Pygmies. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now these funny Pygmies, as I told you before, had a Giant for their neighbor and brother, who was bigger, if possible, than they were little.

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**Who acts:** I, funny Pygmies, brother, Pygmies · **What happens:** tell, have, be · **To what, where:** funny Pygmies, you, Giant · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, funny Pygmies, brother, Pygmies), 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:pg976:7:18
# text = Now these funny Pygmies, as I told you before, had a Giant for their neighbor and brother, who was bigger, if possible, than they were little.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
2	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
3	funny	funny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Pygmies	pygmy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	before	before	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	neighbor	neighbor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	than	than	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
31	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | I | this funny Pygmies *not said here* | you |  |  | before *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 2 | **have** | past | this funny Pygmies | a Giant |  |  | now |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent giant=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | brother |  |  |  |  | big *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* |  | brother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | Pygmies *= pygmy* |  |  |  |  | little *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Project Gutenberg book 976 (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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