---
title: The next day Edmund thought he would prove his tale by showing peopl… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The next day Edmund thought he would prove his tale by showing people the cockatrice, and he actually persuaded some people to go into the cave with him; but the cockatrice had bolted himself in and would not open the door--so Edmund got nothing by that except a scolding for taking people on a wild-
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/243/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 243

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The next day Edmund thought he would prove his tale by showing people the cockatrice, and he actually persuaded some people to go into the cave with him; but the cockatrice had bolted himself in and would not open the door--so Edmund got nothing by that except a scolding for taking people on a wild-goose chase.

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**Who acts:** Edmund, class · **What happens:** think, prove, show, persuade, go, bolt in · **To what, where:** tale, cockatrice, people, cave, door, nothing · **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, class), 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:pg23661:14:243
# text = The next day Edmund thought he would prove his tale by showing people the cockatrice, and he actually persuaded some people to go into the cave with him; but the cockatrice had bolted himself in and would not open the door--so Edmund got nothing by that except a scolding for taking people on a wild-goose chase.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	prove	prove	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	cockatrice	cockatrice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	actually	actually	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	cockatrice	cockatrice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	bolted	bolt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
36	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	35	obj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
39	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
40	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	conj	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	so	so	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
46	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
47	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
48	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	47	obj	_	_
49	by	by	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	47	obl	_	_
51	except	except	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	scolding	scolding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
54	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
55	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	47	advcl	_	_
56	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	55	obj	_	_
57	on	on	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
59	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	59	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	goose	goose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	62	compound	_	_
62	chase	chase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Edmund |  |  |  | day |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **prove** | would | class | class's tale |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Theme |
| 3 | **show** | gerund | class *not said here* | the cockatrice | people |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent people=Recipient cockatrice=Topic |
| 4 | **persuade** | past | class | some people |  |  |  | actually *property* | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent people=Patient clause=Result |
| 5 | **go** | to-infinitive | class *not said here* |  |  | the cave |  | with class | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into cave=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **bolt in** | past · perfect · passive |  | the cockatrice |  |  |  |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP ADJP»: subject=Patient himself=Result |
| 7 | **not** **open** | would |  | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |
| 8 | **get** | past | Edmund | nothing |  |  |  | by that; except a scolding | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 9 | **take** | gerund | Edmund *not said here* | people |  | a goose chase |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent people=Theme on chase=Destination |
| 10 | **tell** |  | class |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication intransitive»: 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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