---
title: "If I might venture to advise Your Majesty," said the Prime Minister… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "If I might venture to advise Your Majesty," said the Prime Minister, "I should not read these books. Who acts: Prime Minister. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 123

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"If I might venture to advise Your Majesty," said the Prime Minister, "I should not read these books.

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**Who acts:** Prime Minister · **What happens:** venture, advise, say, not read · **To what, where:** Majesty, books · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prime Minister), 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:pg23661:1:123
# text = "If I might venture to advise Your Majesty," said the Prime Minister, "I should not read these books.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	venture	venture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	advise	advise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	Majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Prime	Prime	PROPN	NNP	_	15	compound	_	_
15	Minister	Minister	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
22	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **venture** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | might | the Prime Minister *= minister* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **advise** *speech: other* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Prime Minister *= minister* *not said here* | Your Majesty |  |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent majesty=Recipient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Prime Minister |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **read** *in a quote* | should | the Prime Minister *= minister* | this books |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent book=Topic |

<!-- .note -->
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 Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Project Gutenberg book 23661 (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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