---
title: But be careful not to spill any of the liquid, as each drop means a… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: But be careful not to spill any of the liquid, as each drop means a man’s life.” Who acts: you, drop. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle., sentence 106

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But be careful not to spill any of the liquid, as each drop means a man’s life.”

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**Who acts:** you, drop · **What happens:** be, not spill, mean · **To what, where:** any, life

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, drop), 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:pg75000:17:106
# text = But be careful not to spill any of the liquid, as each drop means a man’s life.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
3	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	spill	spill	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	liquid	liquid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	drop	drop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | careful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **spill** | to-infinitive |  | any of the liquid |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location any=Theme |
| 3 | **mean** | present | each drop | a man's life |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Topic |

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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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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