---
title: But Jane pulled at her brother's jacket-tail and whispered, "Ask him… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But Jane pulled at her brother's jacket-tail and whispered, "Ask him what he wants it for." Who acts: Jane, brother. 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 124

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But Jane pulled at her brother's jacket-tail and whispered, "Ask him what he wants it for."

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**Who acts:** Jane, brother · **What happens:** pull, whisper, ask, want · **To what, where:** brother, tail · **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 (Jane, brother), 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:pg23661:7:124
# text = But Jane pulled at her brother's jacket-tail and whispered, "Ask him what he wants it for."
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	jacket	jacket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | past | Jane |  |  |  |  | at Jane's brother's jacket tail | vn push-12-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent at tail=Theme |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | Jane *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | brother |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **want** *in a quote* | present | brother | tail |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme it=Attribute |

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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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