---
title: It seemed very stupid, and when Lionel gave it a push and said, "Go… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed very stupid, and when Lionel gave it a push and said, "Go along and fight the Dragon, do," it put its tail between its legs and fairly ran away. Who acts: It, Lionel, picture. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It seemed very stupid, and when Lionel gave it a push and said, "Go along and fight the Dragon, do," it put its tail between its legs and fairly ran away.

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**Who acts:** It, Lionel, picture · **What happens:** seem, give, say, go along, fight, do · **To what, where:** picture, Dragon, tail, legs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (It, Lionel, picture), 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:pg23661:2:41
# text = It seemed very stupid, and when Lionel gave it a push and said, "Go along and fight the Dragon, do," it put its tail between its legs and fairly ran away.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	stupid	stupid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	Lionel	Lionel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	push	push	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
18	along	along	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	fight	fight	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	do	do	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
29	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	between	between	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	fairly	fairly	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
37	away	away	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  | stupid *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **give** | past | Lionel | picture |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent it=Recipient push=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Lionel *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go along** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fight** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the Dragon |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Co-Agent |
| 6 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **put** | past | picture | picture's tail |  | picture's legs |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent tail=Theme between leg=Destination |
| 8 | **run away** | past | picture *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away, fairly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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