---
title: The crowd began to cry, for they loved their Princess, though they q… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The crowd began to cry, for they loved their Princess, though they quite saw that their first duty was to be generous and give the poor dragon what it wanted. Who acts: crowd, things, first duty, duty. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The crowd began to cry, for they loved their Princess, though they quite saw that their first duty was to be generous and give the poor dragon what it wanted.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** crowd, things, first duty, duty · **What happens:** begin, cry, love, see, be, give · **To what, where:** Princess, poor dragon · **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 (crowd, things, first duty, duty), 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:pg23661:4:72
# text = The crowd began to cry, for they loved their Princess, though they quite saw that their first duty was to be generous and give the poor dragon what it wanted.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
18	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	20	amod	_	_
20	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	generous	generous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	32	obj	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the crowd |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | the crowd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **love** | past | things *= thing* | things's Princess |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer princess=Stimulus |
| 4 | **see** | past | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | things's first duty |  |  |  |  | generous *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **give** | present | things's first duty *not said here* | the poor dragon |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Theme |
| 7 | **want** | past | duty | the poor dragon |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=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.

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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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