---
title: But the people who were listening at the door interrupted, and said… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But the people who were listening at the door interrupted, and said that if Johnnie could fasten up the dragon again they would turn out the mayor and let Johnnie be mayor in his place. Who acts: people, Johnnie. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependen
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 215

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the people who were listening at the door interrupted, and said that if Johnnie could fasten up the dragon again they would turn out the mayor and let Johnnie be mayor in his place.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, Johnnie · **What happens:** listen, interrupt, say, fasten up, turn out, let · **To what, where:** dragon, mayor, place, Johnnie mayor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (people, Johnnie), 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:pg23661:12:215
# text = But the people who were listening at the door interrupted, and said that if Johnnie could fasten up the dragon again they would turn out the mayor and let Johnnie be mayor in his place.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	acl:relcl	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	interrupted	interrupt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	Johnnie	Johnnie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	fasten	fasten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	again	again	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	mayor	mayor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
31	Johnnie	Johnnie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	cop	_	_
33	mayor	mayor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past · progressive | the people |  |  |  |  | at the door | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at door=Theme |
| 2 | **interrupt** | past | the people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fasten up** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | Johnnie | the dragon |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Patient |
| 5 | **turn out** | would | people | the mayor |  |  | again |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mayor=Theme |
| 6 | **let** | infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  | Dragon's place |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | infinitive |  | Johnnie mayor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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