---
title: I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish, or to wish to… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish, or to wish to deny a trivial pleasure to a poor, sick dragon, far from his home and friends." Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 100

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I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish, or to wish to deny a trivial pleasure to a poor, sick dragon, far from his home and friends."

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** not like, be, wish, deny · **To what, where:** dear little niece, selfish, trivial pleasure

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg23661:4:100
# text = I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish, or to wish to deny a trivial pleasure to a poor, sick dragon, far from his home and friends."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
6	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	niece	niece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	selfish	selfish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	deny	deny	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	trivial	trivial	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
23	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **like** | should | I | my dear little niece |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot niece=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | selfish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wish** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **deny** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | a trivial pleasure |  |  |  | to a poor sick dragon; far *property* | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent pleasure=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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