---
title: I was nice and safe under the stone, Tom, and could do no harm; but… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I was nice and safe under the stone, Tom, and could do no harm; but thou let me out thyself, and thou can't put me back again! Who acts: I, thou. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 4, sentence 8

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I was nice and safe under the stone, Tom, and could do no harm; but thou let me out thyself, and thou can't put me back again!

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**Who acts:** I, thou · **What happens:** be, do, let out, not put back · **To what, where:** stone, harm, thyself, me

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, thou), 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:pg14241:18:8
# text = I was nice and safe under the stone, Tom, and could do no harm; but thou let me out thyself, and thou can't put me back again!
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
6	under	under	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	16	det	_	_
16	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
23	thyself	thyself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes|Style=Arch	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nsubj	_	_
27	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
30	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
32	again	again	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | nice *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | I *not said here* |  |  | the stone |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | could | I *not said here* | no harm |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=Eventuality |
| 4 | **let out** | past | thou | thyself | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient thyself=Theme |
| 5 | **not** **put back** | can | thou |  | me |  | again |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent i=Goal |

<!-- .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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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