---
title: He had often watched them flying across the sea, but he had never ex… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He had often watched them flying across the sea, but he had never expected to get to know one personally. Who acts: Tom, wings. 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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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 86

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He had often watched them flying across the sea, but he had never expected to get to know one personally.

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**Who acts:** Tom, wings · **What happens:** watch, fly, not expect, get, know · **To what, where:** wings, sea, Tom, one

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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, wings), 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:pg23661:3:86
# text = He had often watched them flying across the sea, but he had never expected to get to know one personally.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	watched	watch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
7	across	across	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obj	_	_
21	personally	personally	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | past · perfect | Tom | wings *= wing* |  |  |  | often *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fly** | gerund | wings *= wing* *not said here* |  |  | the sea |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across sea=Trajectory |
| 3 | **not** **expect** | past · perfect · passive |  | Tom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Tom *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **know** | to-infinitive | Tom *not said here* | one |  |  |  | personally *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus |

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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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