---
title: John the blacksmith struggled on as best he could, with a few odd jo… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: John the blacksmith struggled on as best he could, with a few odd jobs from travelers and strangers who did not know what a superior forge the mayor's was. Who acts: strangers, superior forge. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 8

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John the blacksmith struggled on as best he could, with a few odd jobs from travelers and strangers who did not know what a superior forge the mayor's was.

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**Who acts:** strangers, superior forge · **What happens:** struggle on, not know, be · **To what, where:** blacksmith, strangers · **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 (strangers, superior forge), 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:pg23661:12:8
# text = John the blacksmith struggled on as best he could, with a few odd jobs from travelers and strangers who did not know what a superior forge the mayor's was.
1	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	blacksmith	blacksmith	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	_
4	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	nmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	odd	odd	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	jobs	job	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	travelers	traveler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	ccomp	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	superior	superior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	forge	forge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	mayor	Mayor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **struggle on** | participle |  | the blacksmith *not said here* |  |  |  | with a few odd jobs from travelers and strangers | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with job=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | strangers |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past | a superior forge | strangers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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