---
title: "I quite understand," said his wife, who had brought the coal home i… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I quite understand," said his wife, who had brought the coal home in her apron that very afternoon, and knew that it was all coal dust. Who acts: wife, that, coal. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"I quite understand," said his wife, who had brought the coal home in her apron that very afternoon, and knew that it was all coal dust.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, that, coal · **What happens:** understand, say, bring, afternoon, know, be · **To what, where:** wife, apron, coal dust · **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 (wife, that, coal), 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:pg23661:12:38
# text = "I quite understand," said his wife, who had brought the coal home in her apron that very afternoon, and knew that it was all coal dust.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	understand	understand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	home	home	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	apron	apron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
21	very	very	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	det	_	_
30	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **understand** *in a quote* | present | blacksmith's wife *= wife* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | blacksmith's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **bring** | past · perfect · passive |  | blacksmith's wife |  | most's apron and afternoon |  | home *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Destination coal=Theme |
| 4 | **afternoon** |  | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **know** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is a** | past | coal | all coal dust |  |  |  |  | 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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