---
title: His head was white with age--and his beard had grown so long that he… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: His head was white with age--and his beard had grown so long that he caught his claws in it as he walked. Who acts: head, beard. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 11, sentence 21

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His head was white with age--and his beard had grown so long that he caught his claws in it as he walked.

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**Who acts:** head, beard · **What happens:** be, grow, catch, walk · **To what, where:** claws, head

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head, beard), 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:pg23661:11:21
# text = His head was white with age--and his beard had grown so long that he caught his claws in it as he walked.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | tide's head |  |  |  | with age | white *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **grow** | past · perfect | tide's beard |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | past | beard | tide's claws |  | head |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent claw=Theme |
| 4 | **walk** | past | beard |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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