---
title: The two children used to go together to peep through the iron gratin… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The two children used to go together to peep through the iron grating at the dragon, and sometimes they would hear him mew piteously. Who acts: iron, children, Dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/175/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [The Dragon Tamers\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/) / 175

# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 175

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The two children used to go together to peep through the iron grating at the dragon, and sometimes they would hear him mew piteously.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** iron, children, Dragon · **What happens:** use, go together, peep, grate, hear, mew · **To what, where:** two children, Dragon

<!-- .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 (iron, children, Dragon), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:12:175
# text = The two children used to go together to peep through the iron grating at the dragon, and sometimes they would hear him mew piteously.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	together	together	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	peep	peep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
10	through	through	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	grating	grate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	22	advmod	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	mew	mew	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	piteously	piteously	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | participle · passive |  | the two children |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **go together** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **peep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | through the iron | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through iron=Theme |
| 4 | **grate** | gerund | the iron *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the dragon | vn appeal-31.4-1 «NP V PP.experiencer»: agent=Stimulus at dragon=Experiencer |
| 5 | **hear** | would | children *= child* | Dragon |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **mew** | infinitive | Dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | piteously *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 174](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/174/)
- next →: [sentence 176](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/176/)
- ↑ back to [The Dragon Tamers\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/)