---
title: "Well, I haven't much patience at any time," said Elfin, "and now I… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Well, I haven't much patience at any time," said Elfin, "and now I can assure you that there's very little left. Who acts: Elfin, little left. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 109

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"Well, I haven't much patience at any time," said Elfin, "and now I can assure you that there's very little left.

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**Who acts:** Elfin, little left · **What happens:** have, say, assure, be · **To what, where:** much patience, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Elfin, little left), 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:pg23661:13:109
# text = "Well, I haven't much patience at any time," said Elfin, "and now I can assure you that there's very little left.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	det	_	_
11	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	Elfin	Elfin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	assure	assure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	's	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	left	left	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *in a quote* | present | Elfin | much patience |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent patience=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Elfin |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **assure** *in a quote* | can | Elfin |  | you |  | now |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | little left |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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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