---
title: He wanted to find out what made the noises that people were afraid o… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He wanted to find out what made the noises that people were afraid of, and there was nothing in the caves to tell him. Who acts: lantern, noises, nothing. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 31

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He wanted to find out what made the noises that people were afraid of, and there was nothing in the caves to tell him.

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**Who acts:** lantern, noises, nothing · **What happens:** want, find out, make, be, tell · **To what, where:** noises, lantern · **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 (lantern, noises, nothing), 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:pg23661:14:31
# text = He wanted to find out what made the noises that people were afraid of, and there was nothing in the caves to tell him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	nsubj	_	_
7	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	noises	noise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	acl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
19	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	nsubj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	caves	cave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	parataxis	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | lantern |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **find out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | lantern *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **make** | past |  | the noises |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material noise=Product |
| 4 | **is** | past | the noises |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  | lantern |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=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.

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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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