---
title: Keep your hands free lest you knock your nose against a stone, for t… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Keep your hands free lest you knock your nose against a stone, for the way is steep and the stones sharp. Who acts: you, way, stones. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 99

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Keep your hands free lest you knock your nose against a stone, for the way is steep and the stones sharp.

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**Who acts:** you, way, stones · **What happens:** keep, knock, be · **To what, where:** hands, nose, stone

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, way, stones), 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:pg2435:15:99
# text = Keep your hands free lest you knock your nose against a stone, for the way is steep and the stones sharp.
1	Keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
4	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	xcomp	_	_
5	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	knock	knock	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
8	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	against	against	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
22	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | imperative | you *not said here* | your hands |  |  |  | free *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hand=Theme |
| 2 | **knock** | present | you | your nose |  | a stone |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent nose=Theme against stone=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | present | the way |  |  |  |  | steep *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | the stones |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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