---
title: Could we ever forgive ourselves if by neglecting a simple precaution… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Could we ever forgive ourselves if by neglecting a simple precaution we lost more rabbits--or even, perhaps, our navy, our police, and our fire brigade? Who acts: we. 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 59

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Could we ever forgive ourselves if by neglecting a simple precaution we lost more rabbits--or even, perhaps, our navy, our police, and our fire brigade?

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** forgive, neglect, lose · **To what, where:** ourselves, simple precaution, more rabbits

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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 (we), 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:pg23661:4:59
# text = Could we ever forgive ourselves if by neglecting a simple precaution we lost more rabbits--or even, perhaps, our navy, our police, and our fire brigade?
1	Could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
4	forgive	forgive	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	neglecting	neglect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	precaution	precaution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	_
15	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	even	even	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	navy	navy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	police	police	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	brigade	brigade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **forgive** | could | we | ourselves |  |  | ever |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ourselves=Theme |
| 2 | **neglect** *a condition, not said to happen* | gerund | we *not said here* | a simple precaution |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent precaution=Theme |
| 3 | **lose** | past | we | more rabbits |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Eventuality |

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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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