---
title: As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, he thought what… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, he thought what a pretty sight it was to see the rabbits in the bright, dewy morning, frisking with their young ones by the mouths of their burrows. Who acts: Tom, pretty sight. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, wit
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, he thought what a pretty sight it was to see the rabbits in the bright, dewy morning, frisking with their young ones by the mouths of their burrows.

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**Who acts:** Tom, pretty sight · **What happens:** go out, think, see, frisk · **To what, where:** town, rabbits · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Tom, pretty sight), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:3:72
# text = As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, he thought what a pretty sight it was to see the rabbits in the bright, dewy morning, frisking with their young ones by the mouths of their burrows.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	out	out	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	across	across	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	downs	down	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
27	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	dewy	dewy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	frisking	frisk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	ones	one	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
37	by	by	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	burrows	burrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go out** | past | Tom |  |  | the town and the downs |  | out *property* | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Tom |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | a pretty sight | the rabbits |  |  | morning |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **frisk** | gerund | a pretty sight *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with rabbits's young ones; by the mouths of rabbits's burrows | vn investigate-35.4 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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