---
title: What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the 1,440 minute… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the 1,440 minutes that make up a day the whirlpools slipped into silence, while the tide went down and left the yellow sand bare. Who acts: Nigel, 1,440 minutes, whirlpools, tide. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10, 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 10, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the 1,440 minutes that make up a day the whirlpools slipped into silence, while the tide went down and left the yellow sand bare.

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**Who acts:** Nigel, 1,440 minutes, whirlpools, tide · **What happens:** know, be, make up, slip, go down, leave · **To what, where:** that, this, silence, yellow sand

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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 (Nigel, 1,440 minutes, whirlpools, tide), 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:pg23661:10:72
# text = What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the 1,440 minutes that make up a day the whirlpools slipped into silence, while the tide went down and left the yellow sand bare.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	obl	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
11	out	out	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	1,440	1,440	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	whirlpools	whirlpool	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	slipped	slip	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	tide	tide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
31	down	down	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
37	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | Nigel | that |  |  | minute |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | this |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **make up** | present | the 1,440 minutes |  |  |  | day |  | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **slip** | past | the whirlpools |  |  | silence |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **go down** | past | the tide |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 6 | **leave** | past | the tide *not said here* | the yellow sand |  |  |  | bare *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sand=Theme |

<!-- .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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