---
title: And one night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipper asleep in… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And one night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipper asleep in his bunk, Nigel launched the ship's boat and steered alone over the dark sea towards the light. Who acts: ship, Nigel. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 10, sentence 66

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And one night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipper asleep in his bunk, Nigel launched the ship's boat and steered alone over the dark sea towards the light.

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**Who acts:** ship, Nigel · **What happens:** be, launch, steer · **To what, where:** anchor, boat, dark sea

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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 (ship, Nigel), 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:pg23661:10:66
# text = And one night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipper asleep in his bunk, Nigel launched the ship's boat and steered alone over the dark sea towards the light.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	anchor	anchor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	skipper	skipper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
14	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	bunk	bunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	Nigel	Nigel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	launched	launch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	's	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	steered	steer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
27	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	over	over	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the ship |  |  | anchor and the skipper |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **launch** | past | Nigel | the ship's boat |  |  | night |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boat=Theme |
| 3 | **steer** | past | Nigel *not said here* |  |  | the dark sea |  | towards the light; alone *property* | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent over sea=Destination |

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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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