---
title: “Nay,” said Jack, “if this be the case I’d better dispatch you!” so,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Nay,” said Jack, “if this be the case I’d better dispatch you!” so, jumping upon the block, he stabbed him in the back, when he dropped down dead. Who acts: Jack, this. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Jack the Giant-killer, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/54/58/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The History of Jack the Giant-killer](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/54/) / 58

# The Blue Fairy Book, The History of Jack the Giant-killer, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Nay,” said Jack, “if this be the case I’d better dispatch you!” so, jumping upon the block, he stabbed him in the back, when he dropped down dead.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jack, this · **What happens:** say, be, dispatch, jump, stab, drop down · **To what, where:** case, you, block, club, back · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg503:3905`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg503:54:58
# text = “Nay,” said Jack, “if this be the case I’d better dispatch you!” so, jumping upon the block, he stabbed him in the back, when he dropped down dead.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	_
2	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	5	ccomp	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	advcl	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	’d	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	17	advmod	_	_
17	dispatch	dispatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	jumping	jump	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
24	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	block	block	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	stabbed	stab	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	37	advmod	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
38	down	down	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	_
39	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	xcomp	_	_
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | infinitive | this | the case |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dispatch** *in a quote* | past | Jack | you |  |  |  | well *property* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient |
| 4 | **jump** | gerund | Jack *not said here* |  |  | the block |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon block=Trajectory |
| 5 | **stab** | past | Jack | club |  | the back |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Patient in back=Location |
| 6 | **drop down** | past | Jack |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/54/57/)
- next →: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/54/59/)
- ↑ back to [The History of Jack the Giant-killer](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/54/)