---
title: There was a heavy rumbling sound, like a very large old gentleman as… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a heavy rumbling sound, like a very large old gentleman asleep after dinner; and there was a smaller sort of rumble going on at the same time; and there was a sort of crowing, clucking sound, such as a chicken might make if it happened to be as big as a haystack. Who acts: heavy rumbling s
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 33

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There was a heavy rumbling sound, like a very large old gentleman asleep after dinner; and there was a smaller sort of rumble going on at the same time; and there was a sort of crowing, clucking sound, such as a chicken might make if it happened to be as big as a haystack.

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**Who acts:** heavy rumbling sound, rumble, sort, chicken, it · **What happens:** be, go on, crow, cluck, make, happen · **To what, where:** smaller sort, sort, sound

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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 (heavy rumbling sound, rumble, sort, chicken), 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:pg23661:14:33
# text = There was a heavy rumbling sound, like a very large old gentleman asleep after dinner; and there was a smaller sort of rumble going on at the same time; and there was a sort of crowing, clucking sound, such as a chicken might make if it happened to be as big as a haystack.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	rumbling	rumbling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
14	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
15	after	after	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	20	expl	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	amod	_	_
23	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	advcl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	rumble	rumble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
26	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	37	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	35	expl	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
38	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
39	crowing	crow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	37	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
41	clucking	cluck	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	39	conj	_	_
42	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
44	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=SCONJ	49	mark	_	_
45	as	as	ADP	IN	_	44	fixed	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	chicken	chicken	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	_
48	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
49	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	parataxis	_	_
50	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
51	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
52	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	ccomp	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
54	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	56	cop	_	_
55	as	as	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	_
56	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	ccomp	_	_
57	as	as	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
58	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
59	haystack	haystack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a heavy rumbling sound and a large old gentleman after dinner |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | a heavy rumbling sound and a large old gentleman after dinner *not said here* | a smaller sort |  |  |  | of rumble | tree rules |
| 3 | **go on** | gerund | rumble *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | a sort |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **crow** | gerund | a sort *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **cluck** | gerund | a sort *not said here* | sound |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent sound=Theme |
| 7 | **make** | might | a chicken |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **happen** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | as a haystack; big *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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