---
title: And presently he began to feel faint, as people sometimes do when th… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And presently he began to feel faint, as people sometimes do when they have been crying, especially if they have not had anything to eat for ten years or so. Who acts: Dragon, people. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/269/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 269

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And presently he began to feel faint, as people sometimes do when they have been crying, especially if they have not had anything to eat for ten years or so.

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**Who acts:** Dragon, people · **What happens:** begin, feel, do, cry, not have, eat · **To what, where:** anything

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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 (Dragon, people), 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:pg23661:12:269
# text = And presently he began to feel faint, as people sometimes do when they have been crying, especially if they have not had anything to eat for ten years or so.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	faint	faint	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	12	advmod	_	_
12	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux	_	_
17	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
25	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	nummod	_	_
30	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Dragon |  |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **feel** | to-infinitive | Dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | faint *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** | present | people |  |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | present · perfect · progressive | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · perfect | people | anything |  |  |  | especially *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Patient |
| 6 | **eat** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | anything *not said here* |  |  | year |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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