---
title: Fortunately none of the dragons were just the right size for eating… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Fortunately none of the dragons were just the right size for eating little boys and girls, or perhaps this story might have had to end here. Who acts: none, right size, story. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/6/4/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 4

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Fortunately none of the dragons were just the right size for eating little boys and girls, or perhaps this story might have had to end here.

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**Who acts:** none, right size, story · **What happens:** be, eat, have, end · **To what, where:** right size, little boys

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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 (none, right size, story), 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:pg23661:6:4
# text = Fortunately none of the dragons were just the right size for eating little boys and girls, or perhaps this story might have had to end here.
1	Fortunately	fortunately	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	10	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	just	just	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux	_	_
24	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	parataxis	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	end	end	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | none | the right size |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund | the right size *not said here* | little boys and girls |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Patient |
| 3 | **have** | might · perfect | this story |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **end** | to-infinitive | this story *not said here* |  |  | here |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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