---
title: She loved him very much, in spite of his inquiring mind, and hardly… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: She loved him very much, in spite of his inquiring mind, and hardly scolded him at all when he frizzled up her tortoiseshell comb in his anxiety to find out whether it was made of real tortoiseshell or of something that would burn. Who acts: Cockatrice, boy. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E.
---

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[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/) / 13

# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 13

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She loved him very much, in spite of his inquiring mind, and hardly scolded him at all when he frizzled up her tortoiseshell comb in his anxiety to find out whether it was made of real tortoiseshell or of something that would burn.

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**Who acts:** Cockatrice, boy · **What happens:** love, scold, frizzle up, find out, make, burn · **To what, where:** boy, spite, all, tortoiseshell comb, anxiety, mind

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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 (Cockatrice, boy), 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:pg23661:14:13
# text = She loved him very much, in spite of his inquiring mind, and hardly scolded him at all when he frizzled up her tortoiseshell comb in his anxiety to find out whether it was made of real tortoiseshell or of something that would burn.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	much	much	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	inquiring	inquiring	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	scolded	scold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	obl	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	frizzled	frizzle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	tortoiseshell	tortoiseshell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	comb	comb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	anxiety	anxiety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	advcl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	tortoiseshell	tortoiseshell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
40	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	39	conj	_	_
43	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	45	nsubj	_	_
44	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	45	aux	_	_
45	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **love** | past | Cockatrice | boy |  | spite of boy's inquiring mind |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **scold** | past |  | boy |  | all |  | hardly *property* | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **frizzle up** | past | boy | Cockatrice's tortoiseshell comb |  | boy's anxiety |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **find out** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **make** | past · passive |  | mind |  |  |  | of real tortoiseshell | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 6 | **burn** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **spite** |  |  | boy's inquiring mind |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |
| 8 | **mind** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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