---
title: Then by twos and by threes, by tens and by twenties, the children va… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then by twos and by threes, by tens and by twenties, the children vanished into the wood, till the mantle of the field was left plain green once more. Who acts: twos. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 26

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Then by twos and by threes, by tens and by twenties, the children vanished into the wood, till the mantle of the field was left plain green once more.

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**Who acts:** twos · **What happens:** vanish, leave · **To what, where:** wood, mantle

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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 (twos), 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:pg23661:13:26
# text = Then by twos and by threes, by tens and by twenties, the children vanished into the wood, till the mantle of the field was left plain green once more.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	twos	two	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	threes	three	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	tens	ten	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	twenties	twenty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	conj	_	_
16	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	till	till	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	mantle	mantle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
29	plain	plain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	green	green	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	32	advmod	_	_
32	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **vanish** | past | twos and threes and tens and twenties and the children |  |  | the wood | then |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **leave** | past · passive |  | the mantle of the field |  |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme green=Attribute |

<!-- .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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