---
title: "Tumble for your life!" cried George, and he fell down at once, beca… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Tumble for your life!" cried George, and he fell down at once, because it is the only way to stop. Who acts: George, cry, life. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 113

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"Tumble for your life!" cried George, and he fell down at once, because it is the only way to stop.

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**Who acts:** George, cry, life · **What happens:** tumble, cry, fall down, be, stop · **To what, where:** only way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (George, cry, life), 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:pg23661:7:113
# text = "Tumble for your life!" cried George, and he fell down at once, because it is the only way to stop.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Tumble	tumble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tumble** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | for your life | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | George |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **fall down** | past | cry |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at once=Location |
| 4 | **is a** | present | life | the only way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **stop** | to-infinitive | cry *not said 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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