---
title: "I should like to marry you, Tom," said the Princess. " — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "I should like to marry you, Tom," said the Princess. " Who acts: Princess. 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 5

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"I should like to marry you, Tom," said the Princess. "

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**Who acts:** Princess · **What happens:** like, marry, say · **To what, where:** you · **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 (Princess), 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:pg23661:3:5
# text = "I should like to marry you, Tom," said the Princess. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
16	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** *in a quote* | should | the Princess *= princess* |  |  |  |  | Tom *vocative* | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **marry** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the Princess *= princess* *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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