---
title: I say, wouldn't it be awful if St. George woke up when there was a d… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: I say, wouldn't it be awful if St. George woke up when there was a dragon near, the size that eats champions?" Who acts: I, story, George, dragon. 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 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I say, wouldn't it be awful if St. George woke up when there was a dragon near, the size that eats champions?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, story, George, dragon, size · **What happens:** say, not be, wake up, be, eat · **To what, where:** size, champions · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (I, story, George, dragon), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:6:49
# text = I say, wouldn't it be awful if St. George woke up when there was a dragon near, the size that eats champions?"
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
8	awful	awful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	St.	St.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:desc	_	_
11	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	woke	wake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
19	near	near	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	eats	eat	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	champions	champion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** | would | story |  |  |  |  | awful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **wake up** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | George  St. | the size |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **be** | past | a dragon |  |  | there |  | near *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **eat** | present | the size | champions |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent champion=Patient |

<!-- .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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