---
title: But the snakes knew the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, o… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But the snakes knew the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best to be civil. Who acts: snakes, Queen. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9, 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/pg23661/9/120/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 120

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But the snakes knew the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best to be civil.

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**Who acts:** snakes, Queen · **What happens:** know, be, have, do · **To what, where:** friends, best

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (snakes, Queen), 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:pg23661:9:120
# text = But the snakes knew the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best to be civil.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mistress	mistress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	fixed	_	_
16	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
26	civil	civil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the snakes |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Queen | the friends |  |  |  | with snakes's mistress | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | snakes *= snake* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | snakes *= snake* *not said here* | snakes's best |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 5 | **is** | to-infinitive | snakes *= snake* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | civil *property* | tree rules |

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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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