---
title: I'm sure there hasn't been a King for some time." — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: I'm sure there hasn't been a King for some time." Who acts: I. 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 99

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I'm sure there hasn't been a King for some time."

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, not be · **To what, where:** King

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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 (I), 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:pg23661:1:99
# text = I'm sure there hasn't been a King for some time."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
5	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
7	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  | there | time | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | present · perfect | I *not said here* | a King |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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