---
title: The pillar, of course, was the top of the piece of rock that had stu… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The pillar, of course, was the top of the piece of rock that had stuck itself through Rotundia millions of years before, and made it spin around the wrong way. Who acts: pillar. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 70

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The pillar, of course, was the top of the piece of rock that had stuck itself through Rotundia millions of years before, and made it spin around the wrong way.

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**Who acts:** pillar · **What happens:** be, stick, make, spin · **To what, where:** top, rock, Rotundia millions, pillar, wrong way

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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 (pillar), 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:pg23661:3:70
# text = The pillar, of course, was the top of the piece of rock that had stuck itself through Rotundia millions of years before, and made it spin around the wrong way.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
18	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	through	through	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	Rotundia	Rotundia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	millions	million	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
24	before	before	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	spin	spin	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	around	around	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	wrong	wrong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the pillar and course | the top |  |  |  | of the piece of rock | tree rules |
| 2 | **stick** | past · perfect · passive |  | rock |  | Rotundia millions of years |  | before *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme itself=Destination |
| 3 | **make** | past | the pillar and course *not said here* | pillar |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **spin** | infinitive | pillar *not said here* |  |  | the wrong way |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme around way=Trajectory |

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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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