---
title: His wife was asleep, in spite of the baby's cries; and John picked u… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife was asleep, in spite of the baby's cries; and John picked up the baby and took it down and put it between the dragon's front paws. Who acts: wife, John, baby. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 105

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His wife was asleep, in spite of the baby's cries; and John picked up the baby and took it down and put it between the dragon's front paws.

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**Who acts:** wife, John, baby · **What happens:** be, pick up, take down, put, spite, cry · **To what, where:** spite, baby, compliment, front paws, cries

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, John, baby), 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:pg23661:12:105
# text = His wife was asleep, in spite of the baby's cries; and John picked up the baby and took it down and put it between the dragon's front paws.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	's	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	cries	cry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	between	between	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	front	front	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | John's wife |  |  | spite of the baby's cries |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **pick up** | past | John | the baby |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Topic |
| 3 | **take down** | past | John *not said here* | compliment |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive | John *not said here* | compliment |  | the dragon's front paws |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme between paw=Destination |
| 5 | **spite** |  |  | the baby's cries |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 6 | **cry** |  | the baby |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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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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