---
title: So then the sportsman had to confess that he wanted the firework to… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So then the sportsman had to confess that he wanted the firework to kill the white grouse with; and, when they came to look, there was the white grouse himself, sitting in the snow, looking quite pale and careworn, and waiting anxiously for the matter to be decided one way or the other. Who acts: sp
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/125/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/) / 125

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 125

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So then the sportsman had to confess that he wanted the firework to kill the white grouse with; and, when they came to look, there was the white grouse himself, sitting in the snow, looking quite pale and careworn, and waiting anxiously for the matter to be decided one way or the other.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sportsman, fireworks, white grouse · **What happens:** have, confess, want, kill, come, look · **To what, where:** firework, white grouse, snow, one way

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (sportsman, fireworks, white grouse), 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:pg23661:7:125
# text = So then the sportsman had to confess that he wanted the firework to kill the white grouse with; and, when they came to look, there was the white grouse himself, sitting in the snow, looking quite pale and careworn, and waiting anxiously for the matter to be decided one way or the other.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	sportsman	sportsman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	confess	confess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	firework	firework	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	grouse	grouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	29	expl	_	_
29	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	grouse	grouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
33	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
40	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	conj	_	_
41	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	xcomp	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	careworn	careworn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	conj	_	_
48	anxiously	anxiously	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
49	for	for	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
52	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
53	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	54	aux:pass	_	_
54	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	47	advcl	_	_
55	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	56	nummod	_	_
56	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl:unmarked	_	_
57	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
58	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the sportsman |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **confess** | to-infinitive | the sportsman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **want** | past | sportsman | the firework |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot firework=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** | to-infinitive | sportsman *not said here* | the white grouse |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grouse=Theme |
| 5 | **come** | past | fireworks *= firework* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** | to-infinitive | fireworks *= firework* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **be** | past | the white grouse |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **sit** | gerund | sportsman | the white grouse *not said here* |  | the snow |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent grouse=Theme in snow=Location |
| 9 | **look** | gerund | sportsman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pale *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 10 | **careworn** | participle | sportsman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **wait** | gerund | sportsman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the matter; anxiously *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 12 | **decide** | to-infinitive · passive | sportsman *not said here* | one way |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/124/)
- next →: [sentence 126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/126/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/)