---
title: As it was, they made him a house, and it saved the expense of a bras… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: As it was, they made him a house, and it saved the expense of a brass band, because no band could possibly have been heard when the dormouse was talking in his sleep. Who acts: dormouse, Rotundians, pig. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As it was, they made him a house, and it saved the expense of a brass band, because no band could possibly have been heard when the dormouse was talking in his sleep.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dormouse, Rotundians, pig · **What happens:** be, make, save, hear, talk, sleep · **To what, where:** house, pig, expense, band, sleep

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (dormouse, Rotundians, pig), 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:pg23661:3:47
# text = As it was, they made him a house, and it saved the expense of a brass band, because no band could possibly have been heard when the dormouse was talking in his sleep.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saved	save	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	expense	expense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
22	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	23	det	_	_
23	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
25	possibly	possibly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	aux	_	_
27	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	dormouse	dormouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	sleep	sleep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | dormouse |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | past | Rotundians *= rotundian* | a house | pig |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary house=Product |
| 3 | **save** | past | dormouse | the expense of a brass band |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent expense=Theme |
| 4 | **hear** | could · perfect · passive |  | no band |  |  |  | possibly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 5 | **talk** | past · progressive | the dormouse |  |  | pig's sleep |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **sleep** |  | pig |  |  |  |  |  | nom sleep «state intransitive»: poss=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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