---
title: So of course the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod or a… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So of course the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod or a shaft mended, went to the mayor. Who acts: things, horse. 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 7

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So of course the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod or a shaft mended, went to the mayor.

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**Who acts:** things, horse · **What happens:** want, shoe, mend, go · **To what, where:** horse, shaft, mayor

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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 (things, horse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg23661:12:7
# text = So of course the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod or a shaft mended, went to the mayor.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	fixed	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	townspeople	townspeople	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	9	advmod	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	shod	shoe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	xcomp	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	shaft	shaft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
16	mended	mend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	mayor	mayor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | things *= thing* | a horse |  |  |  | whenever *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **shoe** *not said to happen* | participle | a horse *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **mend** | participle |  | a shaft *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | past |  |  |  | the mayor |  | of the townspeople or a shaft | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme of townspeople=Initial\_Location to mayor=Destination |

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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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