---
title: I can't keep it quiet," said the dragon; and then suddenly he saw a… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: I can't keep it quiet," said the dragon; and then suddenly he saw a woman sitting on the steps. " Who acts: I, baby, Dragon, woman. 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 150

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I can't keep it quiet," said the dragon; and then suddenly he saw a woman sitting on the steps. "

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**Who acts:** I, baby, Dragon, woman · **What happens:** not keep, say, see, sit · **To what, where:** shop, dragon, woman · **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 (I, baby, Dragon, woman), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:12:150
# text = I can't keep it quiet," said the dragon; and then suddenly he saw a woman sitting on the steps. "
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
15	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **keep** | can | I | shop |  |  |  | quiet *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | the baby *= baby* *not said here* | the dragon |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent dragon=Topic |
| 3 | **see** *in a quote* | past | Dragon | a woman |  |  | then | suddenly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sit** *in a quote* | gerund | a woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the steps | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on step=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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