---
title: He hated being shaken, as all boys do; he would much rather have bee… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He hated being shaken, as all boys do; he would much rather have been slapped. Who acts: Lionel, boys. 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 153

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He hated being shaken, as all boys do; he would much rather have been slapped.

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**Who acts:** Lionel, boys · **What happens:** hate, shake, do, slap · **To what, where:** Lionel

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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, boys), 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:pg23661:1:153
# text = He hated being shaken, as all boys do; he would much rather have been slapped.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	hated	hate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	shaken	shake	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
13	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	slapped	slap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hate** | past | Lionel |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **shake** *not said to happen* | gerund · passive | Lionel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 3 | **do** | present | all boys |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **slap** | would · perfect · passive |  | Lionel |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Instrument |

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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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