---
title: Of course, he could not have done this if the town had been in its o… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Of course, he could not have done this if the town had been in its old place by the river in the middle of the plain, but it had taken root on the hillside just where the dragon left it. Who acts: Germany, town, dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/225/)

<!-- 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/) / 225

# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 225

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Of course, he could not have done this if the town had been in its old place by the river in the middle of the plain, but it had taken root on the hillside just where the dragon left it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Germany, town, dragon · **What happens:** not do, be, take, leave · **To what, where:** this, old place, it, hillside, root

<!-- .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 (Germany, town, dragon), 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:pg23661:14:225
# text = Of course, he could not have done this if the town had been in its old place by the river in the middle of the plain, but it had taken root on the hillside just where the dragon left it.
1	Of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
2	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux	_	_
8	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	obj	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	advcl	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
33	root	root	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	hillside	hillside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
37	just	just	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	41	advmod	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
41	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	acl:relcl	_	_
42	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **do** | could · perfect | Germany | this |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | the town |  |  | town's old place |  | by the river in the middle of the plain | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect · passive |  | it |  | the hillside |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme root=Destination |
| 4 | **leave** | past | the dragon | root |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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 224](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/224/)
- next →: [sentence 226](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/226/)
- ↑ back to [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/)