---
title: "But," said Edmund, who always would argue, even in the least favora… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "But," said Edmund, who always would argue, even in the least favorable circumstances, "how do you account for the town being on the hillside now, instead of by the river as it used to be?" Who acts: Edmund, you, account. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with it
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/234/)

<!-- 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/) / 234

# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 234

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"But," said Edmund, who always would argue, even in the least favorable circumstances, "how do you account for the town being on the hillside now, instead of by the river as it used to be?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Edmund, you, account · **What happens:** say, argue, account, be, use · **To what, where:** least favorable circumstances, hillside · **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 (Edmund, you, account), 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:pg23661:14:234
# text = "But," said Edmund, who always would argue, even in the least favorable circumstances, "how do you account for the town being on the hillside now, instead of by the river as it used to be?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
9	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	11	advmod	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	argue	argue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	even	even	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	18	amod	_	_
17	favorable	favorable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	cop	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	hillside	hillside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
32	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	38	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	38	case	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	fixed	_	_
36	by	by	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	parataxis	_	_
39	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
40	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Edmund |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | would | Edmund |  |  | the least favorable circumstances and the hillside |  | always *property* | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **account** *in a quote* | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  | for the town | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | gerund | account |  |  | the hillside |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **use** *in a quote* | past | account |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **be** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | account *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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 233](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/233/)
- next →: [sentence 235](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/235/)
- ↑ back to [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/)