---
title: Her elephant was devoted to her, and sometimes Mary Ann made her nur… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Her elephant was devoted to her, and sometimes Mary Ann made her nurse quite cross by smuggling the dear little thing up to bed with her and letting it go to sleep with its long trunk laid lovingly across her throat, and its pretty head cuddled under the Royal right ear. Who acts: elephant, Mary, th
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 17

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Her elephant was devoted to her, and sometimes Mary Ann made her nurse quite cross by smuggling the dear little thing up to bed with her and letting it go to sleep with its long trunk laid lovingly across her throat, and its pretty head cuddled under the Royal right ear.

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**Who acts:** elephant, Mary, thing, long trunk, pretty head · **What happens:** be, make, smuggle up, let, go, sleep · **To what, where:** gardener, nurse, dear little thing, bed, thing, throat

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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 (elephant, Mary, thing, long trunk), 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:pg23661:3:17
# text = Her elephant was devoted to her, and sometimes Mary Ann made her nurse quite cross by smuggling the dear little thing up to bed with her and letting it go to sleep with its long trunk laid lovingly across her throat, and its pretty head cuddled under the Royal right ear.
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	devoted	devoted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	12	advmod	_	_
10	Mary	Mary	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	Ann	Ann	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	_
12	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	cross	cross	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	smuggling	smuggle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
35	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
39	lovingly	lovingly	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	across	across	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
45	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
46	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
48	cuddled	cuddle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
49	under	under	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
51	Royal	Royal	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
52	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	_
53	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | gardener's elephant |  | gardener |  |  | devoted *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | past | Mary | gardener's nurse |  |  |  | cross *obl*; sometimes *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nurse=Product |
| 3 | **smuggle up** | gerund | Mary *not said here* | the dear little thing |  | bed |  | with gardener | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent thing=Theme to bed=Destination |
| 4 | **let** | gerund | Mary *not said here* | thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** | infinitive | thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **lay** | past | elephant's long trunk |  |  | gardener's throat |  | lovingly *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **cuddle** | participle | elephant's pretty head |  |  | the Royal right ear |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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