---
title: And just when it had finished the very last little halfpenny worth,… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And just when it had finished the very last little halfpenny worth, which was short measure, because the milkman's nerves were quite upset, the Red Dragon came down the street looking for the Manticora. Who acts: last little halfpenny, nerves, Red Dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Ne
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/45/)

<!-- 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/) / 45

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And just when it had finished the very last little halfpenny worth, which was short measure, because the milkman's nerves were quite upset, the Red Dragon came down the street looking for the Manticora.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** last little halfpenny, nerves, Red Dragon · **What happens:** finish, be, come down, look · **To what, where:** picture, short measure, street

<!-- .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 (last little halfpenny, nerves, Red Dragon), 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:pg23661:2:45
# text = And just when it had finished the very last little halfpenny worth, which was short measure, because the milkman's nerves were quite upset, the Red Dragon came down the street looking for the Manticora.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	halfpenny	halfpenny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
12	worth	worth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	measure	measure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	milkman	milkman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	's	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	nerves	nerve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	upset	upset	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	Red	Red	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	flat	_	_
30	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
32	down	down	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	Manticora	Manticora	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect · passive |  | picture |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the last little halfpenny and short measure | short measure |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | the milkman's nerves |  |  |  |  | upset *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **come down** | past | the Red Dragon | the street |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location street=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | gerund | the Red Dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the Manticora | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for manticora=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 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/44/)
- next →: [sentence 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/46/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/)