---
title: So the children told him all about it; he turned over in his marble… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So the children told him all about it; he turned over in his marble and leaned on one elbow to listen. Who acts: children, George. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 21

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So the children told him all about it; he turned over in his marble and leaned on one elbow to listen.

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**Who acts:** children, George · **What happens:** tell, turn over, learn, listen · **To what, where:** George, marble, one elbow · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, George), 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:pg23661:6:21
# text = So the children told him all about it; he turned over in his marble and leaned on one elbow to listen.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	all	all	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	over	over	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	leaned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	elbow	elbow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the children |  | George |  |  | about matter | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient about it=Topic |
| 2 | **turn over** | past | George |  |  | George's marble |  |  | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **learn** | past | George *not said here* |  |  | one elbow |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **listen** | to-infinitive | George *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: 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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