---
title: "I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear," said Edmund patiently. " — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear," said Edmund patiently. " Who acts: Edmund, my. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 123

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"I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear," said Edmund patiently. "

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**Who acts:** Edmund, my · **What happens:** be, not make, say, mean · **To what, where:** Edmund · **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 (Edmund, my), 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:pg23661:14:123
# text = "I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear," said Edmund patiently. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
16	patiently	patiently	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Edmund |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **make** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Edmund |  |  |  | clear *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary meaning=Product |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Edmund |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **mean** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom meaning «communication 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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