---
title: Effie's father was a doctor, so of course he knew how to take things… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Effie's father was a doctor, so of course he knew how to take things out of eyes--he did it very cleverly with a soft paintbrush dipped in castor oil. Who acts: father, kind. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 23

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Effie's father was a doctor, so of course he knew how to take things out of eyes--he did it very cleverly with a soft paintbrush dipped in castor oil.

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**Who acts:** father, kind · **What happens:** be, know, take, do, dip · **To what, where:** doctor, things, eyes, thing, soft paintbrush

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, kind), 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:pg23661:5:23
# text = Effie's father was a doctor, so of course he knew how to take things out of eyes--he did it very cleverly with a soft paintbrush dipped in castor oil.
1	Effie	Effie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	doctor	doctor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	12	advmod	_	_
10	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	fixed	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	cleverly	cleverly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	paintbrush	paintbrush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
30	dipped	dip	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	castor	castor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Effie's father | a doctor |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | past | kind |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **take** | to-infinitive | kind *not said here* | things |  | eyes |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent thing=Theme out eye=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **do** | past | kind | thing |  |  |  | with a soft paintbrush; cleverly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 5 | **dip** | participle |  | a soft paintbrush *not said here* |  |  |  | in castor oil | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in oil=Attribute |

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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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