--- title: So they went in and talked to him, and told him what the weather was… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics description: So they went in and talked to him, and told him what the weather was like outside, and what there was in the papers, and at last Johnnie said: "There's a lame giant in the town. Who acts: worlds, weather, lame giant. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its depe --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/190/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [The Dragon Tamers\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/) / 190 # The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 190 So they went in and talked to him, and told him what the weather was like outside, and what there was in the papers, and at last Johnnie said: "There's a lame giant in the town. **Who acts:** worlds, weather, lame giant · **What happens:** go in, talk, tell, be, say · **To what, where:** Dragon, last Johnnie, town · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (worlds, weather, lame giant), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg23661:12:190 # text = So they went in and talked to him, and told him what the weather was like outside, and what there was in the papers, and at last Johnnie said: "There's a lame giant in the town. 1 So so ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 in in ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 5 and and CCONJ CC _ 6 cc _ _ 6 talked talk VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 7 to to ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 10 and and CCONJ CC _ 11 cc _ _ 11 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 12 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 iobj _ _ 13 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 11 obj _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 weather weather NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 nsubj _ _ 16 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 18 cop _ _ 17 like like ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 outside outside ADV RB _ 13 acl:relcl _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 21 punct _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 21 cc _ _ 21 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 11 parataxis _ _ 22 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 23 expl _ _ 23 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 21 acl:relcl _ _ 24 in in ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 papers paper NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 28 and and CCONJ CC _ 32 cc _ _ 29 at at ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 31 amod _ _ 31 Johnnie Johnnie PROPN NNP Number=Sing 32 obl _ _ 32 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 33 : : PUNCT : _ 36 punct _ _ 34 " " PUNCT `` _ 36 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 35 There there PRON EX PronType=Dem 36 expl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 's be VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 32 ccomp _ _ 37 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 38 lame lame ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ _ 39 giant giant NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 nsubj _ _ 40 in in ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 42 town town NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **go in** | past | worlds *= world* | | | | | | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **talk** | past | worlds *= world* *not said here* | | Dragon | | | | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-Agent | | 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | worlds *= world* *not said here* | | Dragon | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient what=Topic | | 4 | **is** | past | the weather | | | | | outside *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | worlds *= world* *not said here* | | | last Johnnie | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 6 | **be** *in a quote* | present | a lame giant | | | the town; there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in town=Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 189](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/189/) - next →: [sentence 191](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/191/) - ↑ back to [The Dragon Tamers\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/)