---
title: But just as the Prince was beginning to think there was no dragon at… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But just as the Prince was beginning to think there was no dragon at all, but only a cock and bull, his favourite old hippopotamus gave tongue. Who acts: Prince, beginning, favourite old hippopotamus. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree and t
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/54/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But just as the Prince was beginning to think there was no dragon at all, but only a cock and bull, his favourite old hippopotamus gave tongue.

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**Who acts:** Prince, beginning, favourite old hippopotamus · **What happens:** begin, think, be, give · **To what, where:** dragon, all, tongue

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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 (Prince, beginning, favourite old hippopotamus), 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:pg23661:13:54
# text = But just as the Prince was beginning to think there was no dragon at all, but only a cock and bull, his favourite old hippopotamus gave tongue.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	beginning	begin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	csubj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
25	favourite	favourite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	hippopotamus	hippopotamus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
29	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past · progressive | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | beginning | no dragon but a cock and bull |  | all |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | past | Prince's favourite old hippopotamus | tongue |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Theme |

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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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