---
title: For there, plain to be seen, was the dragon, as big as a barge, glow… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: For there, plain to be seen, was the dragon, as big as a barge, glowing like a furnace, and spitting fire and showing his shining teeth. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/13/58/)

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# The Book of Dragons, The Fiery Dragon\], sentence 58

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For there, plain to be seen, was the dragon, as big as a barge, glowing like a furnace, and spitting fire and showing his shining teeth.

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**What happens:** see, be, glow, spit, show, shine · **To what, where:** dragon, fire, shining teeth

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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: 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:pg23661:13:58
# text = For there, plain to be seen, was the dragon, as big as a barge, glowing like a furnace, and spitting fire and showing his shining teeth.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	plain	plain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	barge	barge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	glowing	glow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	furnace	furnace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	spitting	spit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	_
26	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	conj	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	amod	_	_
31	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V» |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the dragon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **glow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | like a furnace | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **spit** | gerund |  | fire |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent fire=Theme |
| 5 | **show** | gerund |  | Prince's shining teeth |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tooth=Recipient |
| 6 | **shine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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