---
title: When his wife was not doing the housework she used to nurse the baby… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: When his wife was not doing the housework she used to nurse the baby and cry, remembering the happy days when she lived with her father, who kept seventeen cows and lived quite in the country, and when John used to come courting her in the summer evenings, as smart as smart, with a posy in his butto
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/14/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When his wife was not doing the housework she used to nurse the baby and cry, remembering the happy days when she lived with her father, who kept seventeen cows and lived quite in the country, and when John used to come courting her in the summer evenings, as smart as smart, with a posy in his buttonhole.

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**Who acts:** wife, prisoner, father, John · **What happens:** not do, use, cry, remember, live, keep · **To what, where:** housework, nurse, seventeen cows, country, prisoner

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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, prisoner, father, 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:pg23661:12:14
# text = When his wife was not doing the housework she used to nurse the baby and cry, remembering the happy days when she lived with her father, who kept seventeen cows and lived quite in the country, and when John used to come courting her in the summer evenings, as smart as smart, with a posy in his buttonhole.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	housework	housework	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	appos	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	remembering	remember	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
30	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
31	seventeen	seventeen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
32	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obj	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
35	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
41	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	43	advmod	_	_
42	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
43	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	xcomp	_	_
46	courting	court	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	45	xcomp	_	_
47	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	obj	_	_
48	in	in	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
50	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	compound	_	_
51	evenings	evening	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
53	as	as	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	smart	smart	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	parataxis	_	_
55	as	as	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	smart	smart	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
58	with	with	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
59	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	60	det	_	_
60	posy	posy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	conj	_	_
61	in	in	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
62	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	63	nmod:poss	_	_
63	buttonhole	buttonhole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | past · progressive | blacksmith's wife | the housework |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent housework=Eventuality |
| 2 | **use** | past | prisoner | nurse |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nurse=Patient |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | infinitive | prisoner *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **remember** | gerund | blacksmith's wife *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **live** | past | prisoner |  |  |  |  | with prisoner's father | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with father=Location |
| 6 | **keep** | past | prisoner's father | seventeen cows |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 7 | **live** | past | prisoner's father *not said here* |  |  | the country |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in country=Location |
| 8 | **use** | past | John |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 9 | **come** | to-infinitive | John *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **court** | gerund | John *not said here* | prisoner |  |  | evening |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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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