---
title: In the middle of the cave was a hole like a very big hand-washing ba… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the cave was a hole like a very big hand-washing basin, and in the middle of the basin Edmund saw a large pale person sitting. Who acts: hole, large pale person. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Kind Little Edmund], with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Kind Little Edmund\], sentence 48

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In the middle of the cave was a hole like a very big hand-washing basin, and in the middle of the basin Edmund saw a large pale person sitting.

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**Who acts:** hole, large pale person · **What happens:** be, wash, see, sit · **To what, where:** hole, middle, large pale person

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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 (hole, large pale person), 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:pg23661:14:48
# text = In the middle of the cave was a hole like a very big hand-washing basin, and in the middle of the basin Edmund saw a large pale person sitting.
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	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
12	very	very	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
14	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	washing	wash	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	amod	_	_
17	basin	basin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	basin	basin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	Edmund	Edmund	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	_
27	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a hole |  | the middle of the cave |  | like a big washing basin | tree rules |
| 2 | **wash** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **see** | past | a hole *not said here* | a large pale person |  | the middle of the basin |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer person=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sit** | gerund | a large pale person *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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