---
title: So he went down the winding stairs to the dungeon and stood at the b… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So he went down the winding stairs to the dungeon and stood at the bottom of the steps, holding the lantern above his head just to see that the dungeon really was empty, as usual. Who acts: blacksmith, dungeon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Dragon Tamers], with its dependency
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/12/39/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Dragon Tamers\], sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he went down the winding stairs to the dungeon and stood at the bottom of the steps, holding the lantern above his head just to see that the dungeon really was empty, as usual.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** blacksmith, dungeon · **What happens:** go down, stand, hold, see, be · **To what, where:** winding stairs, bottom, lantern, head · **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 (blacksmith, dungeon), 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:pg23661:12:39
# text = So he went down the winding stairs to the dungeon and stood at the bottom of the steps, holding the lantern above his head just to see that the dungeon really was empty, as usual.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	winding	winding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dungeon	dungeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	lantern	lantern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	above	above	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	just	just	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	dungeon	dungeon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	really	really	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | blacksmith | the winding stairs |  |  |  | to the dungeon *result* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient stair=Extent to dungeon=Result |
| 2 | **stand** | past | blacksmith *not said here* |  |  | the bottom of the steps |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at bottom=Location |
| 3 | **hold** | gerund | blacksmith *not said here* | the lantern |  | blacksmith's head |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent lantern=Theme above head=Location |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | blacksmith *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | the dungeon |  |  |  |  | empty *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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