---
title: So while the master was writing _Lying is very wrong, and liars must… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So while the master was writing _Lying is very wrong, and liars must be caned. Who acts: master. 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 97

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So while the master was writing \_Lying is very wrong, and liars must be caned.

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**Who acts:** master · **What happens:** write, be, cane · **To what, where:** Lying, liars

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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 (master), 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:pg23661:14:97
# text = So while the master was writing _Lying is very wrong, and liars must be caned.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	writing	write	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
7	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	Lying	lying	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	liars	liar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	caned	cane	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past · progressive | the master | Lying |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lying=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | wrong *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cane** | must · passive |  | liars |  |  |  |  | vn spank-18.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

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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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