---
title: For the next morning, when the knife-boy was cleaning the doctor's b… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: For the next morning, when the knife-boy was cleaning the doctor's boots, he suddenly dropped the brushes and the boot and the blacking, and screamed out that he was burnt. Who acts: knife boy, boy. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 55

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For the next morning, when the knife-boy was cleaning the doctor's boots, he suddenly dropped the brushes and the boot and the blacking, and screamed out that he was burnt.

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**Who acts:** knife boy, boy · **What happens:** clean, drop, scream out, burnt · **To what, where:** boots, brushes, boy

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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 (knife boy, boy), 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:pg23661:5:55
# text = For the next morning, when the knife-boy was cleaning the doctor's boots, he suddenly dropped the brushes and the boot and the blacking, and screamed out that he was burnt.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	cleaning	clean	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	doctor	doctor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	brushes	brush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	boot	boot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	blacking	blacking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	screamed	scream	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clean** | past · progressive | the knife boy | the doctor's boots |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent boot=Patient |
| 2 | **drop** | past | boy | the brushes and the boot and the blacking |  |  | morning | suddenly *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brush=Theme |
| 3 | **scream out** *speech: express* | participle | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **burnt** | past · passive |  | boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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