---
title: His inquiring mind led him to take clocks to pieces to see what made… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: His inquiring mind led him to take clocks to pieces to see what made them go, to take locks off doors to see what made them stick. Who acts: inquiring mind, boy, clocks, locks. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/10/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 10

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His inquiring mind led him to take clocks to pieces to see what made them go, to take locks off doors to see what made them stick.

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**Who acts:** inquiring mind, boy, clocks, locks · **What happens:** lead, take, see, make, go, stick · **To what, where:** boy, clocks, pieces, locks, doors · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (inquiring mind, boy, clocks, locks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:14:10
# text = His inquiring mind led him to take clocks to pieces to see what made them go, to take locks off doors to see what made them stick.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	inquiring	inquiring	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	clocks	clock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	nsubj	_	_
14	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	_
20	locks	lock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
21	off	off	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	doors	door	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	26	nsubj	_	_
26	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
27	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	stick	stick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lead** | past | boy's inquiring mind | boy |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Patient clause=Result |
| 2 | **take** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | clocks |  | pieces |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent clock=Theme to piece=Destination |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **make** | past |  | clocks *= clock* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | infinitive | clocks *= clock* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **take** | to-infinitive | clocks *= clock* *not said here* | locks |  | doors |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent lock=Theme off door=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **see** | to-infinitive | clocks *= clock* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **make** | past |  | locks *= lock* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **stick** | infinitive | locks *= lock* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 10 | **mind** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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