---
title: "We shan't be very nice when the dragon does eat us, that's one comf… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "We shan't be very nice when the dragon does eat us, that's one comfort," said George. " Who acts: We, dragon, that, George. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/111/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 111

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"We shan't be very nice when the dragon does eat us, that's one comfort," said George. "

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**Who acts:** We, dragon, that, George · **What happens:** not be, eat, be, say · **To what, where:** us, one comfort · **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 (We, dragon, that, George), 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:pg23661:8:111
# text = "We shan't be very nice when the dragon does eat us, that's one comfort," said George. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	sha	sha	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	ccomp	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
13	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	comfort	comfort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** *in a quote* |  | We |  |  |  |  | nice *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | present · do-support | the dragon | us |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | one comfort |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | George |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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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