---
title: He was the dearest little elephant you ever saw--about six inches lo… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He was the dearest little elephant you ever saw--about six inches long. Who acts: Tom, you. 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 56

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He was the dearest little elephant you ever saw--about six inches long.

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**Who acts:** Tom, you · **What happens:** be, see · **To what, where:** dearest little elephant

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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 (Tom, you), 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:pg23661:3:56
# text = He was the dearest little elephant you ever saw--about six inches long.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	dearest	dear	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	9	advmod	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	inches	inch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Tom | the dearest little elephant |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | you | the dearest little elephant *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer elephant=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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