---
title: “The next time you touch a Nettle, grasp it boldly, and it will be s… — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · tree and pragmatics
description: “The next time you touch a Nettle, grasp it boldly, and it will be soft as silk to your hand, and not in the least hurt you.” Who acts: you, Stag, least. A sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Three hundred Aesop’s fables, Aesop’s Fables, part 3, sentence 91

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“The next time you touch a Nettle, grasp it boldly, and it will be soft as silk to your hand, and not in the least hurt you.”

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**Who acts:** you, Stag, least · **What happens:** touch, grasp, be, not hurt · **To what, where:** Nettle, Stag, you

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This is a sentence of «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Stag, least), 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:pg21:5:91
# text = “The next time you touch a Nettle, grasp it boldly, and it will be soft as silk to your hand, and not in the least hurt you.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	touch	touch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Nettle	nettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	grasp	grasp	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	boldly	boldly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
18	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
27	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	nsubj	_	_
30	hurt	hurt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** *in a quote* | present | you | a Nettle |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme nettle=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **grasp** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | Stag |  |  | time | boldly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | future | Stag |  |  |  |  | as silk; to your hand; soft *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **hurt** *in a quote* | past | the least | you |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer you=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 21 (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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