---
title: He knew how to annihilate an exposed and throbbing nerve with a ten-… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: He knew how to annihilate an exposed and throbbing nerve with a ten-penny nail heated red-hot. Who acts: Daddy. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 12, sentence 117

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He knew how to annihilate an exposed and throbbing nerve with a ten-penny nail heated red-hot.

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**Who acts:** Daddy · **What happens:** know, annihilate, expose, throb, heat · **To what, where:** an, nerve, penny nail

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This is a sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Daddy), 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:pg76586:12:117
# text = He knew how to annihilate an exposed and throbbing nerve with a ten-penny nail heated red-hot.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	annihilate	annihilate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	exposed	expose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	throbbing	throb	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
10	nerve	nerve	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
13	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	nail	nail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
17	heated	heat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | Daddy |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **annihilate** | to-infinitive | Daddy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **expose** | participle · passive |  | an |  |  |  |  | vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **throb** | gerund |  | nerve |  |  |  | with a penny nail | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location nerve=Theme |
| 5 | **heat** | participle |  | a penny nail *not said here* |  |  |  | hot *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=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:** «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Project Gutenberg book 76586 (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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