---
title: Well, the only thing would be ... dragons can't stand wet and cold,… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Well, the only thing would be ... dragons can't stand wet and cold, that's the only thing. Who acts: dragons, only thing, that. 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 37

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Well, the only thing would be ... dragons can't stand wet and cold, that's the only thing.

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**Who acts:** dragons, only thing, that · **What happens:** not stand, be · **To what, where:** only thing

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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 (dragons, only thing, that), 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:pg23661:6:37
# text = Well, the only thing would be ... dragons can't stand wet and cold, that's the only thing.
1	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	13	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
6	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
8	...	...	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
10	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	compound	_	_
13	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **stand** | can | dragons |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | would | the only thing |  |  |  |  | wet *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the only thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | that | the only thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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