---
title: When the griffin fell asleep that afternoon at teatime, Nigel went s… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: When the griffin fell asleep that afternoon at teatime, Nigel went softly behind him and trod on his tail, and at the same time the Princess cried: "Look out! Who acts: griffin, Nigel, Princess. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 11, sentence 42

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When the griffin fell asleep that afternoon at teatime, Nigel went softly behind him and trod on his tail, and at the same time the Princess cried: "Look out!

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**Who acts:** griffin, Nigel, Princess · **What happens:** fall, go, tread, cry, look out · **To what, where:** teatime, tail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (griffin, Nigel, Princess), 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:pg23661:11:42
# text = When the griffin fell asleep that afternoon at teatime, Nigel went softly behind him and trod on his tail, and at the same time the Princess cried: "Look out!
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	griffin	griffin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	teatime	teatime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	Nigel	Nigel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	trod	tread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	Look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | the griffin |  |  | teatime | afternoon | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at teatime=Location |
| 2 | **go** | past | Nigel |  |  |  |  | behind griffin; softly *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme behind he=Location |
| 3 | **tread** | past | Nigel *not said here* |  |  | griffin's tail |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on tail=Trajectory |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | the Princess |  |  |  | time |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **look out** *in a quote* | infinitive | the Princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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