---
title: "Curiously enough," said the collector, "I too wish to use the needl… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Curiously enough," said the collector, "I too wish to use the needle in connection with cork." Who acts: collector. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 10

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"Curiously enough," said the collector, "I too wish to use the needle in connection with cork."

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**Who acts:** collector · **What happens:** say, wish, use · **To what, where:** needle, connection · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (collector), 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:pg23661:8:10
# text = "Curiously enough," said the collector, "I too wish to use the needle in connection with cork."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Curiously	curiously	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	collector	collector	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	too	too	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	connection	connection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	cork	cork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	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 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the collector |  |  |  |  | curiously *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **wish** *in a quote* | present | the collector *= collector* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **use** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the collector *= collector* *not said here* | the needle |  | connection with cork |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent needle=Patient |

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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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