---
title: And next day John went down and explained carefully to the dragon ex… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And next day John went down and explained carefully to the dragon exactly how matters stood, and he got an iron gate with a grating to it and set it up at the foot of the steps, and the dragon mewed furiously for days and days, but when he found it was no good he was quiet. Who acts: John, matters, 
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/156/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 156

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And next day John went down and explained carefully to the dragon exactly how matters stood, and he got an iron gate with a grating to it and set it up at the foot of the steps, and the dragon mewed furiously for days and days, but when he found it was no good he was quiet.

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**Who acts:** John, matters, dragon, matter · **What happens:** go down, explain, stand, get, set up, mew · **To what, where:** dragon, iron gate, matter, foot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (John, matters, dragon, matter), 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:pg23661:12:156
# text = And next day John went down and explained carefully to the dragon exactly how matters stood, and he got an iron gate with a grating to it and set it up at the foot of the steps, and the dragon mewed furiously for days and days, but when he found it was no good he was quiet.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
9	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
14	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	matters	matter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	grating	grating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
43	mewed	mew	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
44	furiously	furiously	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
45	for	for	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
50	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
51	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	53	advmod	_	_
52	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	advcl	_	_
54	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	57	nsubj	_	_
55	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	57	cop	_	_
56	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	57	det	_	_
57	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	ccomp	_	_
58	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
59	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	cop	_	_
60	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | John |  |  |  | day | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | John *not said here* |  | the dragon |  |  | carefully *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent to dragon=Recipient |
| 3 | **stand** | past | matters |  |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **get** | past | John | a iron gate | matter |  |  | with a grating | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer gate=Stimulus |
| 5 | **set up** | infinitive | John *not said here* | matter |  | the foot of the steps |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme at foot=Destination |
| 6 | **mew** | past | the dragon |  |  |  | day | furiously *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **find** | past | Dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **is** | past | matter |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **is** | past | Dragon |  |  |  |  | quiet *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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