---
title: In the middle of that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls with the holes pierced for the archers, and its square towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers; its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged with willow and alder; and the pleasant green garden p
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/106/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/) / 106

# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the middle of that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls with the holes pierced for the archers, and its square towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers; its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged with willow and alder; and the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town, where people sat on holidays to smoke their pipes and listen to the band.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** gray town, people · **What happens:** plain, lie, pierce, drop, melt, edge · **To what, where:** square towers, middle, holes, melted lead, heads, quiet river

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gray town, people), 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:pg23661:14:106
# text = In the middle of that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls with the holes pierced for the archers, and its square towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers; its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged with willow and alder; and the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town, where people sat on holidays to smoke their pipes and listen to the band.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obl	_	_
6	plain	plain	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	gray	gray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	pierced	pierce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	archers	archer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	square	square	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	towers	tower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
30	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
31	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
32	melted	melt	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	amod	_	_
33	lead	lead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	41	punct	_	_
40	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	bridges	bridge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
43	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
44	steeples	steeple	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	48	punct	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	quiet	quiet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
49	edged	edge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	48	acl	_	_
50	with	with	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	willow	willow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
53	alder	alder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	60	punct	_	_
55	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	60	det	_	_
57	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
58	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
59	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	compound	_	_
60	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
61	in	in	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
62	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	63	det	_	_
63	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	nmod	_	_
64	of	of	ADP	IN	_	66	case	_	_
65	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
66	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	70	punct	_	_
68	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	70	advmod	_	_
69	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	70	nsubj	_	_
70	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	66	acl:relcl	_	_
71	on	on	ADP	IN	_	72	case	_	_
72	holidays	holiday	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	70	obl	_	_
73	to	to	PART	TO	_	74	mark	_	_
74	smoke	smoke	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	70	advcl	_	_
75	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	76	nmod:poss	_	_
76	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	74	obj	_	_
77	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	78	cc	_	_
78	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	74	conj	_	_
79	to	to	ADP	IN	_	81	case	_	_
80	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	81	det	_	_
81	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	78	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
82	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plain** | present |  | town's square towers with holes |  | the middle |  | of that; town's bridges and town's steeples *obl*; the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town *obl* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | past | the gray town |  |  |  |  | with town's strong walls with the holes | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pierce** | participle |  | the holes *not said here* |  |  |  | for the archers | vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drop** | gerund |  | melted lead |  | the heads of strangers |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent lead=Theme on head=Destination |
| 5 | **melt** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **edge** | participle |  | the quiet river *not said here* |  |  |  | with willow and alder | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with willow=Theme |
| 7 | **sit** | past | people |  |  | holidays |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on holiday=Location |
| 8 | **smoke** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | people's pipes |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent pipe=Source |
| 9 | **listen** | infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the band | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to band=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/105/)
- next →: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/107/)
- ↑ back to [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/)