---
title: You know, my child, we cannot begin too young to learn to think of t… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: You know, my child, we cannot begin too young to learn to think of the happiness of others rather than our own. Who acts: You, 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 99

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You know, my child, we cannot begin too young to learn to think of the happiness of others rather than our own.

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**Who acts:** You, we · **What happens:** know, not begin, learn, think · **To what, where:** child · **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, 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:pg23661:4:99
# text = You know, my child, we cannot begin too young to learn to think of the happiness of others rather than our own.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	begin	begin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
11	too	too	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	happiness	happiness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
22	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	25	cc	_	_
23	than	than	ADP	IN	_	22	fixed	_	_
24	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | You | my child |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **begin** | can | we |  |  |  |  | young *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **learn** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the happiness of others | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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