---
title: Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a gentle and defense… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a gentle and defenseless member of our community. Who acts: Uncle, Something. 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 52

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Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a gentle and defenseless member of our community.

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**Who acts:** Uncle, Something · **What happens:** go on, happen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Uncle, Something), 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:pg23661:4:52
# text = Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a gentle and defenseless member of our community.
1	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	James	James	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	nsubj	_	_
8	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
12	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	defenseless	defenseless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	member	member	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	community	community	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go on** | past | Uncle |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **happen** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Something |  |  |  |  | to a gentle member of our community | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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