---
title: It went and hid behind the Town Hall, and at night when the people w… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It went and hid behind the Town Hall, and at night when the people were asleep it went around and ate all the pussy-cats in the town. Who acts: picture, people. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 42

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It went and hid behind the Town Hall, and at night when the people were asleep it went around and ate all the pussy-cats in the town.

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**Who acts:** picture, people · **What happens:** go, hide, be, go around, eat · **To what, where:** Town Hall, pussy cats, town

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (picture, people), 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:pg23661:2:42
# text = It went and hid behind the Town Hall, and at night when the people were asleep it went around and ate all the pussy-cats in the town.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Town	Town	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Hall	Hall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
20	around	around	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
23	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	27	det:predet	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	pussy	pussy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | picture |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hide** | past | picture *not said here* |  |  | the Town Hall |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind hall=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past | the people |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **go around** | past | picture |  |  |  | night | around *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **eat** | past | picture *not said here* | all pussy cats |  | the town |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Patient |

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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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