---
title: "The mistake," said Elfin, "was in not having a dragonproof bottle. — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "The mistake," said Elfin, "was in not having a dragonproof bottle. Who acts: mistake, Elfin. 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 189

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"The mistake," said Elfin, "was in not having a dragonproof bottle.

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**Who acts:** mistake, Elfin · **What happens:** say, not have · **To what, where:** dragonproof bottle · **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 (mistake, Elfin), 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:pg23661:13:189
# text = "The mistake," said Elfin, "was in not having a dragonproof bottle.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mistake	mistake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Elfin	Elfin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	dragonproof	dragonproof	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	bottle	bottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the mistake |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **have** *in a quote* | past · progressive | Elfin | a dragonproof bottle |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bottle=Patient |

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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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