---
title: The rabbits were about the size of our rhinoceroses, and all about t… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The rabbits were about the size of our rhinoceroses, and all about the wild parts of the island they had made their burrows as big as railway tunnels. Who acts: rabbits. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/41/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 41

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The rabbits were about the size of our rhinoceroses, and all about the wild parts of the island they had made their burrows as big as railway tunnels.

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**Who acts:** rabbits · **What happens:** be, make · **To what, where:** burrows

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rabbits), 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:pg23661:3:41
# text = The rabbits were about the size of our rhinoceroses, and all about the wild parts of the island they had made their burrows as big as railway tunnels.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	rhinoceroses	rhinoceros	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	all	all	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	parts	part	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	burrows	burrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	as	as	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
27	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	railway	railway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	tunnels	tunnel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the rabbits |  |  |  |  | about the size; of our rhinoceroses; about the wild parts of the island | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | past · perfect | rabbits *= rabbit* | sizes's burrows |  |  |  | big *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset burrow=Product |

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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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