---
title: And, now the nurse was old and feeble, the Princess would not let he… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And, now the nurse was old and feeble, the Princess would not let her work any more, but did all the housework herself, while Nurse sat still and did the sewing, because this was a real Princess with skin like milk and hair like flax and a heart like gold. Who acts: nurse, Princess, this. A sentence
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/9/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 9

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And, now the nurse was old and feeble, the Princess would not let her work any more, but did all the housework herself, while Nurse sat still and did the sewing, because this was a real Princess with skin like milk and hair like flax and a heart like gold.

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**Who acts:** nurse, Princess, this · **What happens:** be, not let, work, do, sit · **To what, where:** nurse, housework, sewing, real Princess

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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 (nurse, Princess, this), 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:pg23661:13:9
# text = And, now the nurse was old and feeble, the Princess would not let her work any more, but did all the housework herself, while Nurse sat still and did the sewing, because this was a real Princess with skin like milk and hair like flax and a heart like gold.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	any	any	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
23	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	25	det:predet	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	housework	housework	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	Nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
31	still	still	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	sewing	sewing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
37	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
38	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	42	nsubj	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	cop	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	_
43	with	with	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
45	like	like	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	_
49	like	like	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nmod	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	conj	_	_
54	like	like	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
55	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the nurse |  |  |  | now | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the nurse *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **let** | would | the Princess | nurse |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **work** | infinitive | nurse *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **do** | past |  | all housework |  |  |  | Princess *obl* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent housework=Eventuality |
| 6 | **sit** | past | Nurse |  |  |  | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **do** | past | Nurse *not said here* | the sewing |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sewing=Eventuality |
| 8 | **is a** | past | this | a real Princess |  |  |  | with skin; like milk and hair like flax and a heart like gold | 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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