---
title: "One could but try," said the collector, and Jane began to feel for… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "One could but try," said the collector, and Jane began to feel for the pin. Who acts: collector, Jane. 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/pg23661/8/14/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 14

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"One could but try," said the collector, and Jane began to feel for the pin.

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**Who acts:** collector, Jane · **What happens:** try, say, begin, feel · **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, Jane), 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:pg23661:8:14
# text = "One could but try," said the collector, and Jane began to feel for the pin.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	One	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	collector	collector	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	pin	pin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** *in a quote* | infinitive | the collector *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the collector |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **begin** | past | Jane |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **feel** | to-infinitive | Jane *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the pin | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for pin=Theme |

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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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