---
title: It's only a squib one of the boys gave me, if that's any good." — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It's only a squib one of the boys gave me, if that's any good." Who acts: work, squib, that. 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 121

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It's only a squib one of the boys gave me, if that's any good."

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**Who acts:** work, squib, that · **What happens:** be, give · **To what, where:** squib, me

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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 (work, squib, 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:pg23661:7:121
# text = It's only a squib one of the boys gave me, if that's any good."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	squib	squib	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	flat	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | work | a squib |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | past | a squib |  | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | that |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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