---
title: Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the peopl… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting the Dragon out of the book. " Who acts: Lionel, people. 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/pg23661/2/18/)

<!-- 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/) / 18

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting the Dragon out of the book. "

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lionel, people · **What happens:** do, be, begin, forgive, let · **To what, where:** best good King, King, Dragon, book

<!-- .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 (Lionel, people), 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:pg23661:2:18
# text = Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting the Dragon out of the book. "
1	Lionel	Lionel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
4	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	King	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
10	during	during	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	beginning	begin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	forgive	forgive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	out	out	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | Lionel |  |  |  | week |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | Lionel's best good King |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **begin** | past · progressive | the people |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **forgive** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* | King |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **let** | gerund | the people *not said here* | the Dragon |  | the book |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Theme |

<!-- .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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/19/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/)