---
title: "I'm a poor starving cockatrice," answered the pale person in a very… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I'm a poor starving cockatrice," answered the pale person in a very faint voice, "and I shall die--oh, I know I shall! Who acts: pale person. 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 51

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"I'm a poor starving cockatrice," answered the pale person in a very faint voice, "and I shall die--oh, I know I shall!

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**Who acts:** pale person · **What happens:** starve, be, answer, die, know · **To what, where:** poor starving cockatrice, faint voice · **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 (pale person), 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:pg23661:14:51
# text = "I'm a poor starving cockatrice," answered the pale person in a very faint voice, "and I shall die--oh, I know I shall!
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	starving	starve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	amod	_	_
7	cockatrice	cockatrice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	faint	faint	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	29	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
30	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **starve** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | the pale person *= person* | a poor starving cockatrice |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: express* | past | the pale person |  |  | a faint voice |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **die** *in a quote* | shall | the pale person *= person* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **know** *in a quote* | present | the pale person *= person* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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