---
title: "I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth," said Edmund, wh… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth," said Edmund, who had not been able to help learning about that at school. Who acts: Edmund, wound. 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 43

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"I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth," said Edmund, who had not been able to help learning about that at school.

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**Who acts:** Edmund, wound · **What happens:** expect, be, say, not be, help, learn · **To what, where:** fire, middle, school · **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, wound), 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:pg23661:14:43
# text = "I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth," said Edmund, who had not been able to help learning about that at school.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	expect	expect	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	cop	_	_
23	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	learning	learn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	xcomp	_	_
27	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	obl	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expect** *in a quote* | present | Edmund |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | wound | the fire |  | the middle of the earth |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Edmund |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past · perfect | Edmund |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** | to-infinitive | Edmund *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **learn** | gerund | Edmund *not said here* |  |  | school |  | about that | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about that=Topic |

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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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