---
title: They could see nothing of him; but when they looked out toward the w… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They could see nothing of him; but when they looked out toward the whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam; and the fishermen reported that the water for miles around was hot enough to shave with! Who acts: people, fishermen, water. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, The Fiery Dragon], wi
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/263/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 263

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could see nothing of him; but when they looked out toward the whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam; and the fishermen reported that the water for miles around was hot enough to shave with!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, fishermen, water · **What happens:** see, look out, report, be, shave, cloud · **To what, where:** nothing, cloud, steam

<!-- .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 (people, fishermen, water), 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:pg23661:13:263
# text = They could see nothing of him; but when they looked out toward the whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam; and the fishermen reported that the water for miles around was hot enough to shave with!
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	whirlpool	whirlpool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	steam	steam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fishermen	fisherman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	reported	report	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	_
32	around	around	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	ccomp	_	_
35	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	shave	shave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | people | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **look out** | past | people |  |  |  |  | toward the whirlpool | vn caring-75.2-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | past | people | a cloud of steam |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cloud=Stimulus |
| 4 | **report** | past | the fishermen |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | the water for miles |  |  |  |  | enough, hot *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **shave** | to-infinitive | the water for miles *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **cloud** |  |  | steam |  |  |  |  | nom cloud «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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