---
title: "Perhaps, my Lord," said the Prime Minister, "we'd better first find… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Perhaps, my Lord," said the Prime Minister, "we'd better first find out just exactly what he has done." Who acts: Lord, we. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/174/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/) / 174

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 174

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Perhaps, my Lord," said the Prime Minister, "we'd better first find out just exactly what he has done."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lord, we · **What happens:** say, find out, do · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Lord, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:1:174
# text = "Perhaps, my Lord," said the Prime Minister, "we'd better first find out just exactly what he has done."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Prime	Prime	PROPN	NNP	_	11	compound	_	_
11	Minister	Minister	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
17	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	advmod	_	_
18	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	just	just	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | my Lord |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **find out** *in a quote* | would | we |  |  |  |  | first, well *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Lord |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 173](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/173/)
- next →: [sentence 175](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/175/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/)