---
title: If you are afraid of it, just nibble a little piece off its tail, in… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: If you are afraid of it, just nibble a little piece off its tail, instead of gulping it all down.” Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 38

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If you are afraid of it, just nibble a little piece off its tail, instead of gulping it all down.”

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** be, nibble, gulp · **To what, where:** little piece, piece

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:16:38
# text = If you are afraid of it, just nibble a little piece off its tail, instead of gulping it all down.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	just	just	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	nibble	nibble	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	off	off	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	19	mark	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	gulping	gulp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	down	down	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | you |  |  |  |  | of hunger; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **nibble** | present |  | a little piece |  |  |  | off hunger's tail | vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Patient |
| 3 | **gulp** | gerund |  | piece |  |  |  | down *property* | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

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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 Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Project Gutenberg book 65965 (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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