---
title: It was a fearful sight, and people watched it from a distance, falli… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a fearful sight, and people watched it from a distance, falling off their legs with the shock of every bang, but always getting up to look again. Who acts: foundry, people. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 201

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It was a fearful sight, and people watched it from a distance, falling off their legs with the shock of every bang, but always getting up to look again.

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**Who acts:** foundry, people · **What happens:** be, watch, fall off, get up, look, shock · **To what, where:** fearful sight, foundry, legs, bang

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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 (foundry, people), 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:pg23661:12:201
# text = It was a fearful sight, and people watched it from a distance, falling off their legs with the shock of every bang, but always getting up to look again.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	shock	shock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	det	_	_
24	bang	bang	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	28	advmod	_	_
28	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
29	up	up	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	_
32	again	again	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | foundry | a fearful sight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **watch** | past | people | foundry |  |  |  | from a distance | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **fall off** | gerund | people *not said here* | people's legs |  |  |  | with the shock of every bang | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient leg=Extent |
| 4 | **get up** | gerund | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 6 | **shock** |  |  | every bang |  |  |  |  | nom shock «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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