---
title: At last one day the mayor and corporation, hunting the hare in their… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: At last one day the mayor and corporation, hunting the hare in their gold gowns, came screaming back to the town gates with the news that a lame, humpy giant, as big as a tin church, was coming over the marshes toward the town. Who acts: mayor. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The D
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 178

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At last one day the mayor and corporation, hunting the hare in their gold gowns, came screaming back to the town gates with the news that a lame, humpy giant, as big as a tin church, was coming over the marshes toward the town.

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**Who acts:** mayor · **What happens:** hunt, come, scream back · **To what, where:** hare, gold gowns, town gates, marshes

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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 (mayor), 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:pg23661:12:178
# text = At last one day the mayor and corporation, hunting the hare in their gold gowns, came screaming back to the town gates with the news that a lame, humpy giant, as big as a tin church, was coming over the marshes toward the town.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	mayor	mayor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	corporation	corporation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	gowns	gown	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	screaming	scream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
20	back	back	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	lame	lame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	humpy	humpy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	as	as	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
37	as	as	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	tin	tin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
44	over	over	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	marshes	marsh	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	_
47	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hunt** | gerund | the mayor and corporation *not said here* | the hare |  | children's gold gowns |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hare=Theme in gown=Location |
| 2 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **scream back** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  | the town gates with the news  a lame |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to gate=Recipient |
| 4 | **come** | past · progressive |  |  |  | the marshes |  | toward the town | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme over marsh=Initial\_Location toward town=Destination |

<!-- .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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