---
title: Then suddenly the King saw coming through the sky the great straggli… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then suddenly the King saw coming through the sky the great straggling, sprawling, wicked shape of the Red Dragon. Who acts: King. 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 71

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Then suddenly the King saw coming through the sky the great straggling, sprawling, wicked shape of the Red Dragon.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** see, come, sprawl · **To what, where:** great straggling, sky, wicked shape

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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 (King), 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:pg23661:2:71
# text = Then suddenly the King saw coming through the sky the great straggling, sprawling, wicked shape of the Red Dragon.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
7	through	through	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	straggling	straggling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	sprawling	sprawl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Red	Red	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	flat	_	_
21	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the King |  |  |  | then | suddenly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | gerund | the King *not said here* | the great straggling |  | the sky |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme through sky=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **sprawl** | gerund | the King *not said here* | wicked shape of the Red Dragon |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location shape=Theme |

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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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