---
title: "Never say't twice," says Jack, and he pitched in big stones and sod… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Never say't twice," says Jack, and he pitched in big stones and sods into the slob, till the ass got good ground under him. Who acts: Jack, ass. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Comrades, sentence 12

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"Never say't twice," says Jack, and he pitched in big stones and sods into the slob, till the ass got good ground under him.

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**Who acts:** Jack, ass · **What happens:** not say't, say, pitch, get · **To what, where:** big stones, good ground · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jack, ass), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7885:18:12
# text = "Never say't twice," says Jack, and he pitched in big stones and sods into the slob, till the ass got good ground under him.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	say't	say't	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
4	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	pitched	pitch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	stones	stone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sods	sod	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	slob	slob	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	ass	ass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
26	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	under	under	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say't** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | twice *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pitch** | past | Jack |  |  | big stones and sods |  | into the slob | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in stone=Destination |
| 4 | **get** | past | the ass | good ground |  |  |  | under Jack | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ground=Stimulus |

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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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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