---
title: He respected the cockatrice very much from that moment, and set off… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He respected the cockatrice very much from that moment, and set off at once to do exactly as he was told--for perhaps the first time in his life. Who acts: fire. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/140/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / 140

# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 140

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He respected the cockatrice very much from that moment, and set off at once to do exactly as he was told--for perhaps the first time in his life.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fire · **What happens:** respect, set off, do, tell · **To what, where:** cockatrice, fire · **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 (fire), 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:pg23661:14:140
# text = He respected the cockatrice very much from that moment, and set off at once to do exactly as he was told--for perhaps the first time in his life.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	respected	respect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cockatrice	cockatrice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	much	much	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
13	off	off	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	12	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
18	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **respect** | past | fire | the cockatrice |  |  | moment |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cockatrice=Stimulus |
| 2 | **set off** | infinitive | fire *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | fire *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | fire |  |  | time | exactly *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/139/)
- next →: [sentence 141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/141/)
- ↑ back to [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/)