---
title: Even a little stone thrown into the water might offend him, and then… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Even a little stone thrown into the water might offend him, and then as he takes back his gift, he stirs up the sea into a storm and drags the sailors down into the depths. Who acts: little stone, Ahti. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, with its depe
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/69/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Even a little stone thrown into the water might offend him, and then as he takes back his gift, he stirs up the sea into a storm and drags the sailors down into the depths.

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**Who acts:** little stone, Ahti · **What happens:** throw, offend, take back, stir up, drag down, gift · **To what, where:** little stone, water, Ahti, gift, sea, storm

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little stone, Ahti), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:23:69
# text = Even a little stone thrown into the water might offend him, and then as he takes back his gift, he stirs up the sea into a storm and drags the sailors down into the depths.
1	Even	even	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	offend	offend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	takes	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
18	back	back	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	gift	gift	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stirs	stir	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	storm	storm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	drags	drag	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	sailors	sailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	down	down	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
35	into	into	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	depths	depth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | participle |  | a little stone *not said here* |  |  |  | into the water *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer into water=Result |
| 2 | **offend** | might | a little stone | Ahti |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 3 | **take back** | present | Ahti | Ahti's gift |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gift=Theme |
| 4 | **stir up** | present | Ahti | the sea |  | a storm |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition sea=Patient |
| 5 | **drag down** | present | Ahti *not said here* | the sailors |  | the depths |  | down *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sailor=Theme |
| 6 | **gift** |  | Ahti |  |  |  |  |  | nom gift «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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