---
title: The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it made itself thin… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it made itself thin, as you may see a fat worm do when it wants to get through a narrow crack in a piece of hard earth. Who acts: cave, bed, you. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the p
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/161/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 161

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The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it made itself thin, as you may see a fat worm do when it wants to get through a narrow crack in a piece of hard earth.

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**Who acts:** cave, bed, you · **What happens:** be, make, see, want, get · **To what, where:** bed, fat worm, narrow crack

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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 (cave, bed, you), 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:pg23661:14:161
# text = The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it made itself thin, as you may see a fat worm do when it wants to get through a narrow crack in a piece of hard earth.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	drakling	drakling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	thin	thin	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	parataxis	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	worm	worm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	through	through	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	crack	crack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the cave |  |  |  |  | for the drakling; narrow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | past | bed | bed |  |  |  | thin *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material itself=Product |
| 3 | **see** | may | you | a fat worm |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer worm=Stimulus |
| 4 | **want** | present · do-support | bed |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | bed *not said here* |  |  | a narrow crack |  | in a piece of hard earth | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme through crack=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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