--- title: Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics description: Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw the Dragon come walking down the steps of the General Post Office spitting fire and smoke, together with tufts of Manticora fur, and the fragments of the registered letters. Who acts: people, way, Dragon, Genera --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/50/) [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/) / 50 # The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 50 Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw the Dragon come walking down the steps of the General Post Office spitting fire and smoke, together with tufts of Manticora fur, and the fragments of the registered letters. **Who acts:** people, way, Dragon, General Post Office · **What happens:** be, see, come, walk down, spit, register · **To what, where:** steps, fire, General Post Office · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (people, way, Dragon, General Post Office), 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:pg23661:2:50 # text = Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw the Dragon come walking down the steps of the General Post Office spitting fire and smoke, together with tufts of Manticora fur, and the fragments of the registered letters. 1 Then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 3 advmod _ _ 2 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 3 expl _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 cop _ _ 4 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 5 sad sad ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 6 amod _ _ 6 silence silence NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 9 presently presently ADV RB _ 14 advmod _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 14 nsubj _ _ 12 whose whose PRON WP$ Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel 13 nmod:poss _ _ 13 windows window NOUN NNS Number=Plur 11 nmod _ _ 14 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 15 that that DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 16 det _ _ 16 way way NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 nsubj _ _ 17 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 conj _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 Dragon Dragon PROPN NNP Number=Sing 20 nsubj _ _ 20 come come VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 17 ccomp _ _ 21 walking walk VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 20 xcomp _ _ 22 down down ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 23 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 steps step NOUN NNS Number=Plur 21 obl _ _ 25 of of ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 27 General General ADJ NNP Degree=Pos 29 amod _ _ 28 Post Post PROPN NNP Number=Sing 29 compound _ _ 29 Office Office PROPN NNP Number=Sing 24 nmod _ _ 30 spitting spit VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 29 acl _ _ 31 fire fire NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 obj _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 33 smoke smoke NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 35 together together ADV RB _ 37 advmod _ _ 36 with with ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 37 tufts tuft NOUN NNS Number=Plur 17 obl _ _ 38 of of ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 Manticora Manticora PROPN NNP Number=Sing 40 compound _ _ 40 fur fur NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 41 , , PUNCT , _ 44 punct _ _ 42 and and CCONJ CC _ 44 cc _ _ 43 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 44 det _ _ 44 fragments fragment NOUN NNS Number=Plur 37 conj _ _ 45 of of ADP IN _ 48 case _ _ 46 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 48 det _ _ 47 registered register VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 48 amod _ _ 48 letters letter NOUN NNS Number=Plur 44 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 14 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | the people the people the people's windows's windows | | | | | look, presently *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **see** | past | that way | | | | | with tufts of Manticora fur and the fragments of the registered letters | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 3 | **come** | present | the Dragon | | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **walk down** | gerund | the Dragon *not said here* | the steps of the General Post Office | | | | | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme step=Trajectory | | 5 | **spit** | gerund | the General Post Office *not said here* | fire and smoke | | | | | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent fire=Theme | | 6 | **register** | participle | | | | | | | vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **step** | | | the General Post Office | | | | | nom step «act transitive»: of=patient | 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 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/49/) - next →: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/51/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/2/)