---
title: The people who did not like him said that he was the most tiresome b… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The people who did not like him said that he was the most tiresome boy that ever lived, but his grandmother and his other friends said that he had an inquiring mind. Who acts: people, boy, tiresome boy, grandmother. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its depe
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The people who did not like him said that he was the most tiresome boy that ever lived, but his grandmother and his other friends said that he had an inquiring mind.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, boy, tiresome boy, grandmother · **What happens:** not like, say, be, live, have, inquire · **To what, where:** boy, tiresome boy, inquiring mind · **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 (people, boy, tiresome boy, grandmother), 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:pg23661:14:4
# text = The people who did not like him said that he was the most tiresome boy that ever lived, but his grandmother and his other friends said that he had an inquiring mind.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	14	advmod	_	_
14	tiresome	tiresome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	advmod	_	_
18	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
27	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	ccomp	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	inquiring	inquire	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	amod	_	_
33	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **like** | past · do-support | the people | boy |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot he=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | boy | the tiresome boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **live** | past | the tiresome boy |  |  |  | ever |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | boy's grandmother and boy's other friends |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **have** | past | boy | a inquiring mind |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mind=Patient |
| 7 | **inquire** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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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