---
title: The reason for shooting him stopped yesterday--I heard Father say so… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The reason for shooting him stopped yesterday--I heard Father say so--so it wouldn't be fair, anyhow. Who acts: reason, I, Father, grouse. 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 127

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The reason for shooting him stopped yesterday--I heard Father say so--so it wouldn't be fair, anyhow.

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**Who acts:** reason, I, Father, grouse · **What happens:** shoot, stop, hear, say, not be · **To what, where:** reason · **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 (reason, I, Father, grouse), 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:pg23661:7:127
# text = The reason for shooting him stopped yesterday--I heard Father say so--so it wouldn't be fair, anyhow.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	shooting	shoot	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	Father	Father	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	anyhow	anyhow	INTJ	UH	_	20	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shoot** | gerund | the reason *not said here* | reason |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **stop** | past | the reason |  |  |  | yesterday |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **hear** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | Father |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** | would | grouse |  |  |  |  | fair *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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