---
title: They gave him the key, and when everyone in the town had gone back t… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They gave him the key, and when everyone in the town had gone back to bed he let in some of the junior secretaries from other Government departments, and they had a jolly game of hide-and-seek among the sacks of gold, and played marbles with the diamonds and rubies and pearls in the big ivory chests
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/143/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 143

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They gave him the key, and when everyone in the town had gone back to bed he let in some of the junior secretaries from other Government departments, and they had a jolly game of hide-and-seek among the sacks of gold, and played marbles with the diamonds and rubies and pearls in the big ivory chests.

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**Who acts:** woods, everyone, secretary · **What happens:** give, go back, let in, have, seek, play · **To what, where:** key, secretary, some, jolly game, sacks, marbles

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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 (woods, everyone, secretary), 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:pg23661:13:143
# text = They gave him the key, and when everyone in the town had gone back to bed he let in some of the junior secretaries from other Government departments, and they had a jolly game of hide-and-seek among the sacks of gold, and played marbles with the diamonds and rubies and pearls in the big ivory chests.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
8	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	14	mark	_	_
9	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	14	nsubj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
15	back	back	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	junior	junior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	secretaries	secretary	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
26	from	from	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	Government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	departments	department	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	jolly	jolly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	hide	hide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	40	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	conj	_	_
43	among	among	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	sacks	sack	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obl	_	_
46	of	of	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
51	marbles	marble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obj	_	_
52	with	with	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
56	rubies	ruby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	conj	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
58	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	conj	_	_
59	in	in	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	63	det	_	_
61	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	63	amod	_	_
62	ivory	ivory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	compound	_	_
63	chests	chest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | woods *= wood* | the key | secretary |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient key=Theme |
| 2 | **go back** | past · perfect | everyone |  |  |  |  | to bed *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to bed=Result |
| 3 | **let in** | past | secretary | some |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | woods *= wood* | a jolly game of hide |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent game=Patient |
| 5 | **seek** | infinitive | woods *= wood* *not said here* |  |  | the sacks of gold |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent among sack=Location |
| 6 | **play** | past | woods *= wood* *not said here* | marbles |  | the big ivory chests |  | with the diamonds and rubies and pearls | vn play-114.2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent marble=Theme with diamond=Co-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.

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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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