---
title: "Oh--just for spite," bawled the dwarfs carelessly--as if they were… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "Oh--just for spite," bawled the dwarfs carelessly--as if they were saying, "Just for fun." Who acts: dwarfs. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/85/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/) / 85

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Oh--just for spite," bawled the dwarfs carelessly--as if they were saying, "Just for fun."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dwarfs · **What happens:** bawl, say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (dwarfs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:8:85
# text = "Oh--just for spite," bawled the dwarfs carelessly--as if they were saying, "Just for fun."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
9	bawled	bawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dwarfs	dwarf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	carelessly	carelessly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	fun	fun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bawl** *speech: other* | past | the dwarfs |  |  |  |  | for spite; carelessly *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S\_INF»: agent=Agent for spite=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | dwarfs *= dwarf* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/84/)
- next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/86/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/)