---
title: "I must look at this one," Lionel said, for on the back in big lette… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I must look at this one," Lionel said, for on the back in big letters he read: _The Book of Beasts_. Who acts: Lionel. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/141/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 141

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"I must look at this one," Lionel said, for on the back in big letters he read: \_The Book of Beasts\_.

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**Who acts:** Lionel · **What happens:** look, say, read · **To what, where:** big letters · **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 (Lionel), 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:pg23661:1:141
# text = "I must look at this one," Lionel said, for on the back in big letters he read: _The Book of Beasts_.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
10	Lionel	Lionel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	letters	letter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	read	read	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
23	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Book	Book	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	Beasts	Beast	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** *in a quote* | must | Lionel |  |  |  |  | at this one | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Lionel |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **read** | past | Lionel | big letters *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=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:** «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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