---
title: Then the dragon got into the habit of cracking his tail, as people c… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the dragon got into the habit of cracking his tail, as people crack whips, and this also got on people's nerves. Who acts: dragon, habit, people, this. 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 37

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Then the dragon got into the habit of cracking his tail, as people crack whips, and this also got on people's nerves.

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**Who acts:** dragon, habit, people, this · **What happens:** get, crack · **To what, where:** habit, tail, whips, nerves

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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 (dragon, habit, people, this), 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:pg23661:4:37
# text = Then the dragon got into the habit of cracking his tail, as people crack whips, and this also got on people's nerves.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	habit	habit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	cracking	crack	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	crack	crack	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	whips	whip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj	_	_
20	also	also	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	nerves	nerve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | the dragon |  |  | the habit | then |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into habit=Destination |
| 2 | **crack** | gerund | the habit *not said here* | man's tail |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tail=Theme |
| 3 | **crack** | present | people | whips |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location whip=Theme |
| 4 | **get** | past | this |  |  | people's nerves |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent on nerve=Source |

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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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