---
title: He shook his fist at his family, as indeed he generally did whenever… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He shook his fist at his family, as indeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a King with pretty home manners. Who acts: King. 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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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 137

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He shook his fist at his family, as indeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a King with pretty home manners.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** shake, do, meet, not be · **To what, where:** fist, family, crumbs

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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 (King), 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:pg23661:9:137
# text = He shook his fist at his family, as indeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a King with pretty home manners.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	fist	fist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	manners	manners	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shake** | past | King | King's fist |  | King's family |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent fist=Theme at family=Trajectory |
| 2 | **do** | past | King |  |  |  |  | generally, indeed *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **meet** | past | King | crumbs *= crumb* |  |  |  | with pretty home manners; whenever *property* | vn satisfy-55.7 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent they=Theme with manners=Instrument |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past | King |  |  |  |  | for a King | 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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