---
title: But deep down in his wicked purple heart he was saying, "Oh, you nic… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But deep down in his wicked purple heart he was saying, "Oh, you nice, fat, pretty little Princess, I should like to eat you instead of these silly acid drops." Who acts: Rotundia, silly acid. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/) / 12

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But deep down in his wicked purple heart he was saying, "Oh, you nice, fat, pretty little Princess, I should like to eat you instead of these silly acid drops."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Rotundia, silly acid · **What happens:** say, like, eat, drop · **To what, where:** you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Rotundia, silly acid), 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:pg23661:4:12
# text = But deep down in his wicked purple heart he was saying, "Oh, you nice, fat, pretty little Princess, I should like to eat you instead of these silly acid drops."
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	deep	deep	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	down	down	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
6	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	17	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	36	case	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	fixed	_	_
33	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	35	det	_	_
34	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	acid	acid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	drops	drop	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | Rotundia |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **like** *in a quote* | should | Rotundia |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **eat** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | Rotundia *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Patient |
| 4 | **drop** *in a quote* | present | this silly acid |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/13/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/)