---
title: "But what is the Rory Bory what's-its-name?" asked Jane. " — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "But what is the Rory Bory what's-its-name?" asked Jane. " Who acts: Bory what's, Borealis. 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 45

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"But what is the Rory Bory what's-its-name?" asked Jane. "

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**Who acts:** Bory what's, Borealis · **What happens:** be, ask, name · **To what, where:** Jane · **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 (Bory what's, Borealis), 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:pg23661:7:45
# text = "But what is the Rory Bory what's-its-name?" asked Jane. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	Rory	Rory	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Bory	Bory	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	what's	what'	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Bory what's |  | Jane |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent jane=Recipient |
| 3 | **name** *in a quote* |  | Borealis |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=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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