---
title: My dear, that is the sort of silly question you children always will… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: My dear, that is the sort of silly question you children always will ask. Who acts: that, you. 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/pg23661/7/9/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 9

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My dear, that is the sort of silly question you children always will ask.

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**Who acts:** that, you · **What happens:** be, ask · **To what, where:** sort, silly question

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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 (that, you), 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:pg23661:7:9
# text = My dear, that is the sort of silly question you children always will ask.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
12	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod:unmarked	_	_
13	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	15	advmod	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | that | the sort |  |  |  | of silly question | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | future | you | silly question *not said here* |  |  |  | always *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |

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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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