---
title: Tan back, Mossa Sperit; me do you no harm.” — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Tan back, Mossa Sperit; me do you no harm.” Who acts: you, me. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 13, 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 13, sentence 73

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Tan back, Mossa Sperit; me do you no harm.”

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**Who acts:** you, me · **What happens:** tan back, do · **To what, where:** Mossa, you

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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 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, me), 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:pg76586:13:73
# text = Tan back, Mossa Sperit; me do you no harm.”
1	Tan	tan	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	back	back	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	Mossa	Mossa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	Sperit	Sperit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tan back** | imperative | you *not said here* | Mossa |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mossa=Patient |
| 2 | **do** | present | me | you |  |  |  | no harm *obj* | tree rules |

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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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