---
title: "Whatever's that?" said the dragon, starting so that every plate on… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Whatever's that?" said the dragon, starting so that every plate on his body rattled. Who acts: that, dragon, body. 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 92

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"Whatever's that?" said the dragon, starting so that every plate on his body rattled.

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**Who acts:** that, dragon, body · **What happens:** be, say, start, rattle · **To what, where:** Whatever · **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 (that, dragon, body), 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:pg23661:12:92
# text = "Whatever's that?" said the dragon, starting so that every plate on his body rattled.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	cop	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	starting	start	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
12	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	15	det	_	_
15	plate	plate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	rattled	rattle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | Whatever |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **start** | gerund | the dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | so every plate | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **rattle** | past | Dragon's body |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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