---
title: For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be a ge… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be a general and a poet and a Prime Minister and an admiral and a civil engineer. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 10

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For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be a general and a poet and a Prime Minister and an admiral and a civil engineer.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** mean, grow up, be · **To what, where:** boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg23661:3:10
# text = For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be a general and a poet and a Prime Minister and an admiral and a civil engineer.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	ccomp	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	general	general	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	poet	poet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	Prime	Prime	PROPN	NNP	_	26	compound	_	_
26	Minister	Minister	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	admiral	admiral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	civil	civil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	engineer	engineer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past | the gardener's boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **grow up** | past · passive |  | boy |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | general *property* | 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.

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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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