---
title: "Excuse me," said the collector, "but have you such a thing as a nee… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Excuse me," said the collector, "but have you such a thing as a needle about you--a very long needle?" Who acts: you, 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 6

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"Excuse me," said the collector, "but have you such a thing as a needle about you--a very long needle?"

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**Who acts:** you, collector · **What happens:** excuse, say, have · **To what, where:** collector, thing · **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 (you, 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:pg23661:8:6
# text = "Excuse me," said the collector, "but have you such a thing as a needle about you--a very long needle?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Excuse	excuse	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	collector	collector	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
14	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	16	det:predet	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	about	about	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **excuse** *in a quote* | imperative | you *not said here* | the collector *= collector* |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the collector |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | present | you | such thing and a long needle |  |  |  | as a needle about you | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=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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