---
title: "It must have come up those nasty broken steps from goodness knows w… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "It must have come up those nasty broken steps from goodness knows where," said the blacksmith to himself, trembling all over, as he tried to creep back up the winding stairs. Who acts: side, those, goodness, blacksmith. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 43

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"It must have come up those nasty broken steps from goodness knows where," said the blacksmith to himself, trembling all over, as he tried to creep back up the winding stairs.

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**Who acts:** side, those, goodness, blacksmith · **What happens:** come up, break, step, know, say, tremble · **To what, where:** goodness, winding stairs · **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 (side, those, goodness, blacksmith), 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:pg23661:12:43
# text = "It must have come up those nasty broken steps from goodness knows where," said the blacksmith to himself, trembling all over, as he tried to creep back up the winding stairs.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	aux	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	_
6	up	up	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	10	nsubj	_	_
8	nasty	nasty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
10	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
11	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	goodness	goodness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	blacksmith	blacksmith	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
24	all	all	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	over	over	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	creep	creep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	back	back	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	up	up	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	winding	winding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come up** *in a quote* | must · perfect | side |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **break** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **step** *in a quote* |  | those |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** *in a quote* | present | goodness |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the blacksmith |  | goodness |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **tremble** | gerund | the blacksmith *not said here* |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **try** | past | goodness |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **creep back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | goodness *not said here* |  |  | the winding stairs |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme up stair=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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