---
title: Why, Mary Ann, my precious, my Princess--what do you think I should… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Why, Mary Ann, my precious, my Princess--what do you think I should be doing while the dragon was getting his birthday present? Who acts: you, I, dragon. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/83/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 83

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Why, Mary Ann, my precious, my Princess--what do you think I should be doing while the dragon was getting his birthday present?

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**Who acts:** you, I, dragon · **What happens:** think, do, get · **To what, where:** Princess, birthday present · **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 (you, I, dragon), 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:pg23661:4:83
# text = Why, Mary Ann, my precious, my Princess--what do you think I should be doing while the dragon was getting his birthday present?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	Mary	Mary	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	Ann	Ann	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	Princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
13	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux	_	_
19	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	ccomp	_	_
20	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	birthday	birthday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | present · do-support | you | my Princess |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent what=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | should · progressive | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **get** | past · progressive | the dragon | Mary's birthday present |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer present=Stimulus |

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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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