---
title: But they all happened to have engagements for that evening; so they… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But they all happened to have engagements for that evening; so they praised John's cleverness, and said they were quite content to leave the matter in his hands. Who acts: rivets. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 121

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But they all happened to have engagements for that evening; so they praised John's cleverness, and said they were quite content to leave the matter in his hands.

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**Who acts:** rivets · **What happens:** happen, have, praise, say, be, leave · **To what, where:** engagements, cleverness, matter, hands · **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 (rivets), 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:pg23661:12:121
# text = But they all happened to have engagements for that evening; so they praised John's cleverness, and said they were quite content to leave the matter in his hands.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	nsubj	_	_
4	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	engagements	engagement	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	praised	praise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
15	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	's	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	cleverness	cleverness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	content	content	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | rivets *= rivet* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | to-infinitive | rivets *= rivet* *not said here* | engagements |  |  | for that evening |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent engagement=Patient |
| 3 | **praise** | past | rivets *= rivet* | John's cleverness |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cleverness=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | rivets *= rivet* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | rivets *= rivet* |  |  |  |  | content *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **leave** | to-infinitive | rivets *= rivet* *not said here* | the matter |  | John's hands |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent matter=Theme in hand=Location |

<!-- .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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