---
title: For there, by the pillar, lay a very large purple dragon. — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: For there, by the pillar, lay a very large purple dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/80/)

<!-- 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/) / 80

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For there, by the pillar, lay a very large purple dragon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** lay · **To what, where:** large purple dragon

<!-- .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: 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:pg23661:3:80
# text = For there, by the pillar, lay a very large purple dragon.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present |  | a large purple dragon |  |  |  | by the pillar | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent dragon=Result for there=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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 79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/79/)
- next →: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/81/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/3/)