--- title: It edged off when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the Drago… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics description: It edged off when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the Dragon-fighting kind; and, seeing no other door open, the poor, hunted creature took refuge in the General Post Office, and there the Dragon found it, trying to conceal itself among the ten o'clock mail. Who acts: picture, Dragon, poor h --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/46/) [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/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/) / 46 # The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 46 It edged off when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the Dragon-fighting kind; and, seeing no other door open, the poor, hunted creature took refuge in the General Post Office, and there the Dragon found it, trying to conceal itself among the ten o'clock mail. **Who acts:** picture, Dragon, poor hunted creature · **What happens:** edge off, see, come, fight, not be, hunt · **To what, where:** Dragon, other door, refuge, General Post Office, picture, o'clock mail 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, Dragon, poor hunted creature), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg23661:2:46 # text = It edged off when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the Dragon-fighting kind; and, seeing no other door open, the poor, hunted creature took refuge in the General Post Office, and there the Dragon found it, trying to conceal itself among the ten o'clock mail. 1 It it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 edged edge VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 off off ADP RP _ 2 compound:prt _ _ 4 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 6 advmod _ _ 5 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 6 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 advcl _ _ 7 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 obj _ _ 8 coming come VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 6 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 10 for for ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 11 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 12 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 cop _ _ 13 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 20 advmod _ _ 14 at at ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 15 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 20 det:predet _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 17 Dragon Dragon PROPN NNP Number=Sing 20 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 18 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 17 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 19 fighting fight VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 20 amod _ _ 20 kind kind NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 21 ; ; PUNCT : _ 35 punct _ _ 22 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 24 seeing see VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 35 advcl _ _ 25 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 27 det _ _ 26 other other ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 27 amod _ _ 27 door door NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obj _ _ 28 open open ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 31 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 amod _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 33 hunted hunt VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 34 amod _ _ 34 creature creature NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 nsubj _ _ 35 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 36 refuge refuge NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 obj _ _ 37 in in ADP IN _ 41 case _ _ 38 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 39 General General ADJ NNP Degree=Pos 41 amod _ _ 40 Post Post PROPN NNP Number=Sing 41 compound _ _ 41 Office Office PROPN NNP Number=Sing 35 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 42 , , PUNCT , _ 47 punct _ _ 43 and and CCONJ CC _ 47 cc _ _ 44 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 47 expl _ _ 45 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 Dragon Dragon PROPN NNP Number=Sing 47 nsubj _ _ 47 found find VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 35 conj _ _ 48 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 47 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 , , PUNCT , _ 50 punct _ _ 50 trying try VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 47 advcl _ _ 51 to to PART TO _ 52 mark _ _ 52 conceal conceal VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 50 xcomp _ _ 53 itself itself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 52 obj _ _ 54 among among ADP IN _ 58 case _ _ 55 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 58 det _ _ 56 ten ten NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 57 nummod _ _ 57 o'clock o'clock NOUN NN Number=Sing 58 compound _ _ 58 mail mail NOUN NN Number=Sing 52 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 59 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **edge off** | past | picture | | | | | | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location | | 2 | **see** | past | picture | Dragon | | | | | tree rules | | 3 | **come** | gerund | Dragon *not said here* | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **fight** | gerund | | | | | | | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **not** **is** | past | picture | | | | | for all Dragon fighting kind | tree rules | | 6 | **see** | gerund | the poor hunted creature *not said here* | no other door | | | | open *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer door=Stimulus | | 7 | **hunt** | participle | | | | | | | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **take** | past | the poor hunted creature | refuge | | the General Post Office | | | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent refuge=Value in office=Location | | 9 | **find** | past | the Dragon | picture | | there | | | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic | | 10 | **try** | gerund | the Dragon *not said here* | | | | | | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 11 | **conceal** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Dragon *not said here* | picture | | the o'clock mail | | | vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent itself=Patient among mail=Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/45/) - next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/47/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/)