---
title: As for the baby, it cried a good deal at odd times; but at night, wh… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: As for the baby, it cried a good deal at odd times; but at night, when its mother had settled down to sleep, it would always begin to cry, quite as a matter of course, so that she hardly got any rest at all. Who acts: baby, hair, course. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon T
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 16

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As for the baby, it cried a good deal at odd times; but at night, when its mother had settled down to sleep, it would always begin to cry, quite as a matter of course, so that she hardly got any rest at all.

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**Who acts:** baby, hair, course · **What happens:** cry, settle down, sleep, begin, get, matter · **To what, where:** good deal, mother, rest, all

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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 (baby, hair, course), 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:pg23661:12:16
# text = As for the baby, it cried a good deal at odd times; but at night, when its mother had settled down to sleep, it would always begin to cry, quite as a matter of course, so that she hardly got any rest at all.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	4	case	_	_
2	for	for	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	odd	odd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
19	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	23	mark	_	_
20	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	settled	settle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
24	down	down	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	31	advmod	_	_
31	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	46	mark	_	_
43	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	fixed	_	_
44	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
47	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	48	det	_	_
48	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	at	at	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	46	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | baby | a good deal |  |  | time | as the baby | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deal=Topic |
| 2 | **settle down** | past · perfect · passive |  | baby's mother |  |  | night |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sleep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **begin** | would | baby |  |  |  |  | as a matter of course; always *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **cry** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | baby *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **get** | past | hair | any rest |  | all |  | hardly *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent rest=Theme at all=Asset |
| 7 | **matter** |  | course |  |  |  |  |  | nom matter «cognition intransitive»: of=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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