---
title: He never thought that the dragon himself might help them--but then t… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He never thought that the dragon himself might help them--but then that was an idea that would never have occurred to any boy. Who acts: Jane, dragon, that, idea. 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/pg23661/9/23/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 23

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He never thought that the dragon himself might help them--but then that was an idea that would never have occurred to any boy.

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**Who acts:** Jane, dragon, that, idea · **What happens:** not think, help, be, not occur · **To what, where:** George, idea · **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 (Jane, dragon, that, idea), 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:pg23661:9:23
# text = He never thought that the dragon himself might help them--but then that was an idea that would never have occurred to any boy.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	6	nmod:unmarked	_	_
8	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	occurred	occur	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | past | Jane |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **help** | might | the dragon  Jane | George |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **is a** | past | that | a idea |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **occur** | would · perfect | a idea |  |  |  |  | to any boy | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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