---
title: John fastened the dragon up with the collar and the chains, and when… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: John fastened the dragon up with the collar and the chains, and when he had padlocked them all on safely he set to work to find out how many rivets would be needed. Who acts: John. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/109/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 109

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John fastened the dragon up with the collar and the chains, and when he had padlocked them all on safely he set to work to find out how many rivets would be needed.

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**Who acts:** John · **What happens:** fasten up, padlock, set, work, find out, need · **To what, where:** dragon, chains, many rivets · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (John), 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:pg23661:12:109
# text = John fastened the dragon up with the collar and the chains, and when he had padlocked them all on safely he set to work to find out how many rivets would be needed.
1	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	chains	chain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	padlocked	padlock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	nmod:unmarked	_	_
20	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	safely	safely	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
30	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	rivets	rivet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	aux:pass	_	_
34	needed	need	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fasten up** | past | John | the dragon |  |  |  | with the collar and the chains | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent dragon=Patient with collar=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **padlock** | past · perfect | John | chains *= chain* |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **set** | past | John |  |  |  |  | safely *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **work** | to-infinitive | John *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **find out** | to-infinitive | John *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **need** | would · passive |  | many rivets |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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