---
title: As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand. Who acts: girls, grave gentlemen, Lionel. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/1/97/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 1, sentence 97

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As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand.

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**Who acts:** girls, grave gentlemen, Lionel · **What happens:** go along, be, explain, not understand · **To what, where:** Chancellor, things

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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 (girls, grave gentlemen, 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:pg23661:1:97
# text = As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
4	along	along	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	grave	grave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	gentlemen	gentleman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Chancellor	Chancellor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Prime	Prime	PROPN	NNP	_	17	compound	_	_
17	Minister	Minister	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
19	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	obj	_	_
23	Lionel	Lionel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
26	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go along** | past | girls *= girl* |  |  |  |  | along *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the Chancellor and the Prime Minister |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | the grave gentlemen | the things |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **understand** | past · do-support | Lionel | the things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |

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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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