---
title: The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties,… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties, and the red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered on the green of the field. Who acts: children. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/24/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 24

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The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties, and the red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered on the green of the field.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** go, scatter · **To what, where:** red, green

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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 (children), 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:pg23661:13:24
# text = The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties, and the red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered on the green of the field.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	twos	two	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	threes	three	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	tens	ten	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	twenties	twenty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	frocks	frock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	green	green	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | by twos and threes and tens and twenties | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by two=Location |
| 2 | **scatter** | past · passive |  | the red |  | the green of the field |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on green=Destination |

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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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