---
title: They sat on committees and stood on guard, and lay in wait for the D… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They sat on committees and stood on guard, and lay in wait for the Dragon, but he stayed up in the hills, and there was nothing more to be done. Who acts: things, PAGE, nothing. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 179

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They sat on committees and stood on guard, and lay in wait for the Dragon, but he stayed up in the hills, and there was nothing more to be done.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** things, PAGE, nothing · **What happens:** sit, stand, lay, stay up, be, do · **To what, where:** committees, guard, wait, hills

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (things, PAGE, nothing), 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:pg23661:1:179
# text = They sat on committees and stood on guard, and lay in wait for the Dragon, but he stayed up in the hills, and there was nothing more to be done.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	committees	committee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	wait	wait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	28	expl	_	_
28	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
29	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	28	nsubj	_	_
30	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	amod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | things *= thing* |  |  | committees |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on committee=Location |
| 2 | **stand** | past | things *= thing* *not said here* |  |  | guard |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on guard=Location |
| 3 | **lay** | infinitive | things *= thing* *not said here* |  |  | wait for the Dragon |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in wait=Destination |
| 4 | **stay up** | past | PAGE |  |  | the hills |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hill=Location |
| 5 | **be** | past | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive · passive | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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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