---
title: The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold, and the junior secr… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold, and the junior secretary to the junior clerk of the last Lord of the Treasury was appointed to sit up all night with it and see if anything happened. Who acts: anything. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dep
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/139/)

<!-- 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 Fiery Dragon\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/) / 139

# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 139

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold, and the junior secretary to the junior clerk of the last Lord of the Treasury was appointed to sit up all night with it and see if anything happened.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** anything · **What happens:** set down, appoint, sit up, see, happen · **To what, where:** bottle, sacks, junior secretary

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (anything), 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:pg23661:13:139
# text = The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold, and the junior secretary to the junior clerk of the last Lord of the Treasury was appointed to sit up all night with it and see if anything happened.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bottle	bottle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	among	among	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sacks	sack	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	junior	junior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	secretary	secretary	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	junior	junior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	Treasury	Treasury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	appointed	appoint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	det	_	_
33	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl:unmarked	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
38	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
39	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	40	nsubj	_	_
40	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set down** | past · passive |  | the bottle |  | the sacks of gold |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme among sack=Destination |
| 2 | **appoint** | past · passive |  | the junior secretary to the junior clerk of the last Lord of the Treasury |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit up** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | night | with bottle | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **see** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **happen** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | anything |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/138/)
- next →: [sentence 140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/140/)
- ↑ back to [The Fiery Dragon\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/)