---
title: If you were to let it have nothing to eat but mice and birds it migh… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: If you were to let it have nothing to eat but mice and birds it might grow larger and fiercer, and scalier and tailier, and get wings and turn into the beginning of dragons. Who acts: you, cat, mice. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and t
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/297/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 297

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If you were to let it have nothing to eat but mice and birds it might grow larger and fiercer, and scalier and tailier, and get wings and turn into the beginning of dragons.

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**Who acts:** you, cat, mice · **What happens:** let, have, eat, grow, get, turn · **To what, where:** cat, nothing, wings, beginning, dragons

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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 (you, cat, mice), 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:pg23661:12:297
# text = If you were to let it have nothing to eat but mice and birds it might grow larger and fiercer, and scalier and tailier, and get wings and turn into the beginning of dragons.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
18	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	xcomp	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	fiercer	fierce	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	scalier	scaley	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	parataxis	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	tailier	tailier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	get	get	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
29	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	turn	turn	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | past | you | cat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | infinitive | cat *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 3 | **eat** | to-infinitive | cat *not said here* | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **grow** | might | mice and birds |  |  |  |  | large *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **get** | infinitive |  | wings |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wing=Stimulus |
| 6 | **turn** | present |  |  |  |  | into the beginning of dragons |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into beginning=Trajectory |
| 7 | **begin** |  |  | dragons |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: of=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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