---
title: Then the people were very angry indeed, and they said: "We might as… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the people were very angry indeed, and they said: "We might as well be a Republic. Who acts: people, We. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/) / 14

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the people were very angry indeed, and they said: "We might as well be a Republic.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, We · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** Republic · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, We), 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:pg23661:2:14
# text = Then the people were very angry indeed, and they said: "We might as well be a Republic.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
16	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	20	cc	_	_
17	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	fixed	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Republic	Republic	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the people |  |  |  | then | angry, indeed *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | might | We | a Republic |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/15/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/)