---
title: The Princess began to cry, for she did not want to be anybody's birt… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The Princess began to cry, for she did not want to be anybody's birthday present--especially a purple dragon's. Who acts: Princess. 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 73

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The Princess began to cry, for she did not want to be anybody's birthday present--especially a purple dragon's.

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**Who acts:** Princess · **What happens:** begin, cry, not want, be · **To what, where:** birthday present

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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 (Princess), 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:pg23661:4:73
# text = The Princess began to cry, for she did not want to be anybody's birthday present--especially a purple dragon's.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	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	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	cop	_	_
14	anybody	anybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	birthday	birthday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | the Princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | anybody's birthday present |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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