---
title: And it could not turn around and wriggle up again to look after its… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And it could not turn around and wriggle up again to look after its poor tail, because, as everyone knows, the way to the fires below is very easy to go down, but quite impossible to come back on. Who acts: hook, way. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/186/)

<!-- 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/) / 186

# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 186

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And it could not turn around and wriggle up again to look after its poor tail, because, as everyone knows, the way to the fires below is very easy to go down, but quite impossible to come back on.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hook, way · **What happens:** not turn around, wriggle up, look, know, be, go down · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (hook, way), 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:pg23661:14:186
# text = And it could not turn around and wriggle up again to look after its poor tail, because, as everyone knows, the way to the fires below is very easy to go down, but quite impossible to come back on.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	around	around	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	wriggle	wriggle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	again	again	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
13	after	after	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	22	obl	_	_
22	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fires	fire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	below	below	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	very	very	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	csubj	_	_
35	down	down	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	csubj	_	_
42	back	back	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
43	on	on	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **turn around** | could | hook |  |  |  |  | around *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **wriggle up** | infinitive | hook *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive | hook *not said here* |  |  |  | after hook's poor tail |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **know** | present | hook *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as everyone | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer as everyone=Attribute |
| 5 | **is** | present | the way to the fires |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **go down** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 7 | **be** |  | the way to the fires *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **come back** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 185](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/185/)
- next →: [sentence 187](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/187/)
- ↑ back to [Kind Little Edmund\]](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/)