---
title: That knife would never have cut Harry's jacket-tail off, though, and… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: That knife would never have cut Harry's jacket-tail off, though, and when Effie had tried for some time she saw that this was so and gave it up. Who acts: Effie, this. 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 73

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That knife would never have cut Harry's jacket-tail off, though, and when Effie had tried for some time she saw that this was so and gave it up.

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**Who acts:** Effie, this · **What happens:** not cut off, try, see, be · **To what, where:** knife, Effie, time

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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 (Effie, this), 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:pg23661:6:73
# text = That knife would never have cut Harry's jacket-tail off, though, and when Effie had tried for some time she saw that this was so and gave it up.
1	That	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
6	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	Harry	Harry	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	jacket	jacket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	though	though	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	Effie	Effie	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	up	up	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **cut off** | would · perfect · passive |  | that knife |  |  |  | though *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **try** | past · perfect · passive |  | Effie |  |  | time |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 3 | **see** | past | Effie | some time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer time=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past | this |  |  |  |  | give *property* | 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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