---
title: "Well, if you must, you must," said Nurse, "but don't tear your clot… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Well, if you must, you must," said Nurse, "but don't tear your clothes or get your feet wet." Who acts: Nurse. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 65

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"Well, if you must, you must," said Nurse, "but don't tear your clothes or get your feet wet."

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**Who acts:** Nurse · **What happens:** say, not tear, get · **To what, where:** clothes, feet · **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 (Nurse), 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:pg23661:2:65
# text = "Well, if you must, you must," said Nurse, "but don't tear your clothes or get your feet wet."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	12	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	Nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
20	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	19	obj	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Nurse |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **tear** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support | Nurse *not said here* | your clothes |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location clothes=Theme |
| 3 | **get** *in a quote* | infinitive | Nurse *not said here* | your feet |  |  |  | wet *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer foot=Stimulus |

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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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