---
title: He was too poor to live in a proper house, and no one asked any rent… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He was too poor to live in a proper house, and no one asked any rent for the rooms in the ruin, because all the lords of the castle were dead and gone this many a year. Who acts: blacksmith, one, lords. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was too poor to live in a proper house, and no one asked any rent for the rooms in the ruin, because all the lords of the castle were dead and gone this many a year.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** blacksmith, one, lords · **What happens:** be, live, ask, go · **To what, where:** proper house, rent, many

<!-- .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 (blacksmith, one, lords), 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:pg23661:12:4
# text = He was too poor to live in a proper house, and no one asked any rent for the rooms in the ruin, because all the lords of the castle were dead and gone this many a year.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	14	det	_	_
14	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	rent	rent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	rooms	room	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ruin	ruin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
25	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
26	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	28	det:predet	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	lords	lord	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	conj	_	_
36	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	37	nsubj	_	_
37	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	obj	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | blacksmith |  |  |  |  | poor *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **live** | to-infinitive | blacksmith *not said here* |  |  | a proper house |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in house=Location |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | no one | any rent |  |  |  | for the rooms in the ruin | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent rent=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | all lords of the castle |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | participle | all lords of the castle *not said here* | many |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location many=Theme |

<!-- .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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