---
title: Millions of moth voices answered, with laughter as soft as moth wing… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Millions of moth voices answered, with laughter as soft as moth wings, "We should be a poor set of fellows if we couldn't over eat ourselves once in a while--to oblige a friend." Who acts: Millions, We. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 19

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Millions of moth voices answered, with laughter as soft as moth wings, "We should be a poor set of fellows if we couldn't over eat ourselves once in a while--to oblige a friend."

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**Who acts:** Millions, We · **What happens:** answer, be, not eat, oblige · **To what, where:** poor set, ourselves, friend · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Millions, We), 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:pg23661:9:19
# text = Millions of moth voices answered, with laughter as soft as moth wings, "We should be a poor set of fellows if we couldn't over eat ourselves once in a while--to oblige a friend."
1	Millions	million	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	moth	moth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nmod	_	_
5	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	moth	moth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	set	set	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	over	over	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl	_	_
30	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obj	_	_
31	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	29	advmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	oblige	oblige	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Millions of moth voices |  |  |  |  | with laughter; as soft | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | should | We | a poor set |  |  |  | of fellows | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **eat** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | could | we | ourselves |  |  | while | once, over *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ourselves=Patient |
| 4 | **oblige** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | a friend |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent friend=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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