---
title: There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm tree, and unde… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm tree, and under it was written "Dragon." Who acts: sort, red thing. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 163

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There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm tree, and under it was written "Dragon."

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**Who acts:** sort, red thing · **What happens:** be, sit, write, sort · **To what, where:** palm tree, sort, red thing

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sort, red thing), 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:pg23661:1:163
# text = There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm tree, and under it was written "Dragon."
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	det	_	_
4	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
9	under	under	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	under	under	ADP	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | some sort of red thing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | gerund | red thing *not said here* |  |  | a palm tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under tree=Location |
| 3 | **write** | past · passive |  | sort |  |  |  | Dragon *obl* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 4 | **sort** |  |  | red thing |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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