---
title: It was Edmund who cut open the India rubber ball to see what made it… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It was Edmund who cut open the India rubber ball to see what made it bounce, and he never did see, any more than you did when you tried the same experiment. Who acts: mind, Edmund, boy, you. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was Edmund who cut open the India rubber ball to see what made it bounce, and he never did see, any more than you did when you tried the same experiment.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mind, Edmund, boy, you · **What happens:** be, cut, open, see, make, bounce · **To what, where:** Edmund, India rubber ball, mind, same experiment · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mind, Edmund, boy, you), 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:pg23661:14:11
# text = It was Edmund who cut open the India rubber ball to see what made it bounce, and he never did see, any more than you did when you tried the same experiment.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	India	India	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
9	rubber	rubber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	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	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	bounce	bounce	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	any	any	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	28	advmod	_	_
26	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	experiment	experiment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | mind | Edmund |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut** | past | Edmund |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **open** | infinitive | Edmund *not said here* | the India rubber ball |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ball=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | Edmund *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **make** | past |  | mind |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **bounce** | infinitive | mind *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **see** | past · do-support | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **do** | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **try** | past | you | the same experiment |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent experiment=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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