---
title: I have to stir it seven times round with my tail once in a hundred y… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: I have to stir it seven times round with my tail once in a hundred years to keep it alight, and my watch must have been wrong. Who acts: I, watch. 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 54

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I have to stir it seven times round with my tail once in a hundred years to keep it alight, and my watch must have been wrong.

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**Who acts:** I, watch · **What happens:** have, stir, keep, be · **To what, where:** corner

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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 (I, watch), 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:pg23661:14:54
# text = I have to stir it seven times round with my tail once in a hundred years to keep it alight, and my watch must have been wrong.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	stir	stir	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	round	round	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	alight	alight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
25	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
27	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	cop	_	_
28	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stir** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | corner |  |  | year | with my tail; once, round *property* | vn shake-22.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient with tail=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **keep** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | corner |  |  |  | alight *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | must · perfect | my watch |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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