---
title: Then, speaking very loud so as to be heard over the howls of Jane, G… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, speaking very loud so as to be heard over the howls of Jane, George said: "Yah--who's afraid? Who acts: George, Yah, 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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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 77

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Then, speaking very loud so as to be heard over the howls of Jane, George said: "Yah--who's afraid?

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**Who acts:** George, Yah, Jane · **What happens:** speak, hear, say, be, howl · **To what, where:** howls · **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 (George, Yah, 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:pg23661:8:77
# text = Then, speaking very loud so as to be heard over the howls of Jane, George said: "Yah--who's afraid?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	ccomp	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	loud	loud	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	advcl	_	_
11	over	over	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	howls	howl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
17	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Yah	Yah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | to-infinitive · passive | George *not said here* |  |  | the howls of Jane |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus» |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | George |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Yah |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **howl** |  | Jane |  |  |  |  |  | nom howl «communication intransitive»: of=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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