---
title: Magicians are always bad, as you know from your fairy books, and som… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Magicians are always bad, as you know from your fairy books, and some uncles are bad, as you see by the _Babes in the Wood_, or the _Norfolk Tragedy_, and one James at least was bad, as you have learned from your English history. Who acts: Magicians, you, uncles, one James. A sentence of «The Book o
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 16

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Magicians are always bad, as you know from your fairy books, and some uncles are bad, as you see by the \_Babes in the Wood\_, or the \_Norfolk Tragedy\_, and one James at least was bad, as you have learned from your English history.

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**Who acts:** Magicians, you, uncles, one James · **What happens:** be, know, see, learn · **To what, where:** fairy books, least, English history

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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 (Magicians, you, uncles, one James), 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:pg23661:4:16
# text = Magicians are always bad, as you know from your fairy books, and some uncles are bad, as you see by the _Babes in the Wood_, or the _Norfolk Tragedy_, and one James at least was bad, as you have learned from your English history.
1	Magicians	magician	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	uncles	uncle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	Babes	babe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	Wood	Wood	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	22	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
34	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	Norfolk	Norfolk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	Tragedy	Tragedy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	41	nummod	_	_
41	James	James	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	45	nsubj	_	_
42	at	at	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	45	obl	_	_
44	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	cop	_	_
45	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
48	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
49	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
50	learned	learn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
51	from	from	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
52	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
53	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	amod	_	_
54	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Magicians |  |  |  |  | always, bad *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | present | you |  |  | your fairy books |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | present | some uncles |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | present | you |  |  |  |  | by the Babes in the Wood | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | one James |  |  | least |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **learn** | present · perfect | you |  |  | your English history |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from history=Source |

<!-- .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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