---
title: Across the fields troops of children were going out to gather the ma… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Across the fields troops of children were going out to gather the may, and the sound of their laughter and singing came up to the top of the tower. Who acts: troops, sound. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 22

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Across the fields troops of children were going out to gather the may, and the sound of their laughter and singing came up to the top of the tower.

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**Who acts:** troops, sound · **What happens:** go out, gather, come up · **To what, where:** fields, top

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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 (troops, sound), 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:pg23661:13:22
# text = Across the fields troops of children were going out to gather the may, and the sound of their laughter and singing came up to the top of the tower.
1	Across	across	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
4	troops	troops	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	8	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	out	out	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	gather	gather	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
23	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
24	up	up	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go out** | past · progressive | troops of children |  |  | the fields |  | out *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **gather** | to-infinitive | troops of children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **come up** | past | the sound of children's laughter and singing |  |  | the top of the tower |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to top=Initial\_Location |

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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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