---
title: "I would be a stone for a thousand years," said the poor Queen, "if… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I would be a stone for a thousand years," said the poor Queen, "if at the end of them I could see my dear again." Who acts: stone. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 10, sentence 31

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"I would be a stone for a thousand years," said the poor Queen, "if at the end of them I could see my dear again."

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**Who acts:** stone · **What happens:** be, say, see · **To what, where:** stone, dear, end · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stone), 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:pg23661:10:31
# text = "I would be a stone for a thousand years," said the poor Queen, "if at the end of them I could see my dear again."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	obj	_	_
30	again	again	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | a stone *= stone* | a stone |  |  | year |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a stone |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **see** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | could | a stone *= stone* | my dear |  |  | at the end of things; again |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dear=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

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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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