---
title: The junior secretary had never seen a dragon, and, what was more, he… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The junior secretary had never seen a dragon, and, what was more, he did not believe the Prince had ever seen a dragon either. Who acts: junior secretary, secretary. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/140/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 140

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The junior secretary had never seen a dragon, and, what was more, he did not believe the Prince had ever seen a dragon either.

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**Who acts:** junior secretary, secretary · **What happens:** not see, be, not believe, see · **To what, where:** dragon, Prince, more

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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 (junior secretary, secretary), 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:pg23661:13:140
# text = The junior secretary had never seen a dragon, and, what was more, he did not believe the Prince had ever seen a dragon either.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	junior	junior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	secretary	secretary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	24	advmod	_	_
24	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	either	either	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | the junior secretary | a dragon |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dragon=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | more *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **believe** | past · do-support | secretary | the Prince |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer prince=Stimulus |
| 4 | **see** | past · perfect · passive |  | more |  |  | ever | either *property* | 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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