---
title: Even the lords of the castle in the good old times had never known w… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Even the lords of the castle in the good old times had never known where those steps led to, but every now and then they would kick a prisoner down the steps in their lighthearted, hopeful way, and sure enough, the prisoners never came back. Who acts: steps, prisoners. A sentence of «The Book of Dra
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/11/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 11

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Even the lords of the castle in the good old times had never known where those steps led to, but every now and then they would kick a prisoner down the steps in their lighthearted, hopeful way, and sure enough, the prisoners never came back.

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**Who acts:** steps, prisoners · **What happens:** not know, lead, kick, not come back · **To what, where:** lords, prisoner · **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 (steps, prisoners), 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:pg23661:12:11
# text = Even the lords of the castle in the good old times had never known where those steps led to, but every now and then they would kick a prisoner down the steps in their lighthearted, hopeful way, and sure enough, the prisoners never came back.
1	Even	even	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	lords	lord	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
16	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
22	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
23	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	42	advmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	kick	kick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	prisoner	prisoner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	down	down	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
36	lighthearted	lighthearted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
38	hopeful	hopeful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
43	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	prisoners	prisoner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	nsubj	_	_
47	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	48	advmod	_	_
48	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	ccomp	_	_
49	back	back	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · perfect · passive |  | the lords of the castle in the good old times |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lead** | past | that steps |  |  |  |  |  | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition |
| 3 | **kick** | would | steps *= step* | a prisoner |  |  | then | down the steps in steps's lighthearted hopeful way | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent prisoner=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **come back** | past | the prisoners |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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