---
title: This is the tale of the wonders that befell on the evening of the el… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: This is the tale of the wonders that befell on the evening of the eleventh of December, when they did what they were told not to do. Who acts: This, wonders. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/24/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 24

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This is the tale of the wonders that befell on the evening of the eleventh of December, when they did what they were told not to do.

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**Who acts:** This, wonders · **What happens:** be, befell, do, tell, not do · **To what, where:** tale, wonders · **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 (This, wonders), 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:pg23661:7:24
# text = This is the tale of the wonders that befell on the evening of the eleventh of December, when they did what they were told not to do.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	wonders	wonder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	befell	befell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	eleventh	eleventh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	December	December	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	ccomp	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | This | the tale |  |  |  | of the wonders | tree rules |
| 2 | **befell** | present | the wonders |  |  |  | evening |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **do** | past | wonders *= wonder* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | wonders *= wonder* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | wonders *= wonder* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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