---
title: If it were bigger, and if I didn't know that there have been no fabu… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: If it were bigger, and if I didn't know that there have been no fabulous monsters for quite a long time now, I should almost think it was a dragon." Who acts: hedge, I, fabulous monsters. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/16/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 16

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If it were bigger, and if I didn't know that there have been no fabulous monsters for quite a long time now, I should almost think it was a dragon."

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**Who acts:** hedge, I, fabulous monsters · **What happens:** be, not know, think · **To what, where:** dragon · **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 (hedge, I, fabulous monsters), 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:pg23661:13:16
# text = If it were bigger, and if I didn't know that there have been no fabulous monsters for quite a long time now, I should almost think it was a dragon."
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	15	expl	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
17	fabulous	fabulous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	monsters	monster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	23	det:predet	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
24	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | hedge |  |  |  |  | big *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** | present · perfect | no fabulous monsters for quite long time |  |  | there | now |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | should | I |  |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | hedge | a dragon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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