---
title: You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking down… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it was the man come to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas bracket. Who acts: You, knock, voices, Lionel
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/70/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 70

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You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it was the man come to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas bracket.

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**Who acts:** You, knock, voices, Lionel, gas · **What happens:** see, be, talk, think, come, not allow · **To what, where:** gas, swing, skipping rope · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (You, knock, voices, Lionel), 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:pg23661:1:70
# text = You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it was the man come to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas bracket.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	knock	knock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	front	front	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
14	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	downstairs	downstairs	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	Lionel	Lionel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	about	about	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	gas	gas	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
33	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
34	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	aux:pass	_	_
35	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl:relcl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
37	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	aux:pass	_	_
38	lighted	light	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	xcomp	_	_
39	since	since	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
42	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	44	advmod	_	_
43	Lionel	Lionel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
44	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	_
45	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	swing	swing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
47	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
48	tying	tie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	44	advcl	_	_
49	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	51	nmod:poss	_	_
50	skipping	skipping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	compound	_	_
51	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	_
52	to	to	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	gas	gas	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	compound	_	_
55	bracket	bracket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | You |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** | past | a knock at the front door and voices |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **talk** | gerund | voices *not said here* |  |  |  |  | downstairs *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Lionel |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **come** | past | knock |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **see** | to-infinitive | knock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the gas | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **not** **allow** | past · perfect · passive |  | the gas |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 8 | **light** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive | the gas *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP» |
| 9 | **make** | past | Lionel | a swing |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent swing=Product |
| 10 | **tie** | gerund | Lionel *not said here* | Lionel's skipping rope |  |  |  | to the gas bracket | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent rope=Patient to bracket=Co-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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