---
title: And there was the Princess sitting on the floor in the best room of… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And there was the Princess sitting on the floor in the best room of the Lone Tower, crying as if her heart would break, and the dragon and the griffin were sitting primly on each side of her. Who acts: Princess, heart, dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10, with 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 10, sentence 33

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And there was the Princess sitting on the floor in the best room of the Lone Tower, crying as if her heart would break, and the dragon and the griffin were sitting primly on each side of her.

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**Who acts:** Princess, heart, dragon · **What happens:** be, sit, cry, break · **To what, where:** floor, side

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, heart, dragon), 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:pg23661:10:33
# text = And there was the Princess sitting on the floor in the best room of the Lone Tower, crying as if her heart would break, and the dragon and the griffin were sitting primly on each side of her.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
13	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Lone	Lone	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	Tower	Tower	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
33	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
35	primly	primly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	38	det	_	_
38	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | the Princess |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | gerund | the Princess *not said here* |  |  | the floor |  | in the best room of the Lone Tower | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on floor=Location |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | the Princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **break** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | Princess's heart |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **sit** | past · progressive | the dragon and the griffin |  |  | each side of Princess |  | primly *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on side=Location |

<!-- .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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