---
title: He had not been King twenty-four hours, and already he had let loose… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He had not been King twenty-four hours, and already he had let loose a Red Dragon to worry his faithful subjects' lives out. Who acts: Lionel, faithful subjects. 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 168

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He had not been King twenty-four hours, and already he had let loose a Red Dragon to worry his faithful subjects' lives out.

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**Who acts:** Lionel, faithful subjects · **What happens:** have, not be, let, worry, live out · **To what, where:** King, 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, faithful subjects), 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:pg23661:1:168
# text = He had not been King twenty-four hours, and already he had let loose a Red Dragon to worry his faithful subjects' lives out.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	cop	_	_
5	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	already	already	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
16	loose	loose	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	Red	Red	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	flat	_	_
19	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	worry	worry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	subjects	subject	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	lives	live	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
27	out	out	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Lionel |  |  |  | hour |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | participle |  | King |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **let** | past · perfect · passive |  | Lionel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **worry** | to-infinitive | Lionel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **live out** | present | Lionel's faithful subjects |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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