---
title: The stone continued: “If you cut off with your own hand the heads of… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The stone continued: “If you cut off with your own hand the heads of your two children, and smear me with their blood, I shall come back to life.” Who acts: stone, you, King. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Trusty John, sentence 108

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The stone continued: “If you cut off with your own hand the heads of your two children, and smear me with their blood, I shall come back to life.”

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**Who acts:** stone, you, King · **What happens:** continue, cut off, smear, come back · **To what, where:** King, life · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Trusty John. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stone, you, King), 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:pg503:41:108
# text = The stone continued: “If you cut off with your own hand the heads of your two children, and smear me with their blood, I shall come back to life.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	cut	cut	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	smear	smear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	blood	blood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** | past | the stone |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **cut off** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | with your own hand | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **smear** *in a quote* | infinitive | the stone *not said here* |  | the King *= king* |  |  | with stones's blood | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent i=Destination with blood=Theme |
| 4 | **come back** *in a quote* | shall | the King *= king* |  |  | life |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to life=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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