---
title: He did not go very near the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbi… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He did not go very near the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbit of that size is at play it does not always look where it is going, and it might easily have crushed Tom with its foot, and then it would have been very sorry afterward. Who acts: Tom, rabbit, it, play. A sentence of «The Book of D
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/73/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/) / 73

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He did not go very near the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbit of that size is at play it does not always look where it is going, and it might easily have crushed Tom with its foot, and then it would have been very sorry afterward.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Tom, rabbit, it, play · **What happens:** not go, be, not look, go, crush · **To what, where:** play

<!-- .vabout -->
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, rabbit, it, play), 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:pg23661:3:73
# text = He did not go very near the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbit of that size is at play it does not always look where it is going, and it might easily have crushed Tom with its foot, and then it would have been very sorry afterward.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	near	near	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	parataxis	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	27	advmod	_	_
27	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	acl:relcl	_	_
28	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	31	advmod	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
36	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
37	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	aux	_	_
38	crushed	crush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	advcl	_	_
39	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
45	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	51	advmod	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
47	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
48	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	51	aux	_	_
49	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	51	cop	_	_
50	very	very	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
51	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	conj	_	_
52	afterward	afterward	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **go** | past · do-support | Tom |  |  |  |  | near the rabbits; of course | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme of course=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **is** | present | a rabbit of that size |  |  | play |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **look** | present · do-support | it | play *not said here* |  |  |  | always *property* | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme play=Attribute |
| 4 | **go** | present · progressive | play |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **crush** | might · perfect · passive |  | play |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP ADJ PP.instrument»: subject=Patient tom=Result with foot=Instrument |
| 6 | **is** | would · perfect | play |  |  |  | then | afterward, sorry *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/72/)
- next →: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/74/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/)