---
title: So he thought, "If giants like this damp, white stuff, perhaps I sho… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So he thought, "If giants like this damp, white stuff, perhaps I should like it too," and he tasted a little, and liked it so much that he ate it all up. Who acts: creature. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 271

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he thought, "If giants like this damp, white stuff, perhaps I should like it too," and he tasted a little, and liked it so much that he ate it all up.

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**Who acts:** creature · **What happens:** think, like, taste, eat up · **To what, where:** stuff, little · **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 (creature), 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:pg23661:12:271
# text = So he thought, "If giants like this damp, white stuff, perhaps I should like it too," and he tasted a little, and liked it so much that he ate it all up.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	giants	giant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	ccomp	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
10	damp	damp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	stuff	stuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	too	too	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	tasted	taste	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	much	much	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	37	det	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	36	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | creature |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **like** *in a quote* | should | creature | stuff |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 3 | **taste** | past | creature | a little |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme little=Attribute |
| 4 | **like** | past | creature *not said here* | stuff |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 5 | **eat up** | past | creature | stuff |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

<!-- .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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