---
title: And they tried to get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way. — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And they tried to get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way. Who acts: defenses, guinea pig. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 121

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And they tried to get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way.

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**Who acts:** defenses, guinea pig · **What happens:** try, get, stand · **To what, where:** Tom, way

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (defenses, guinea pig), 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:pg23661:4:121
# text = And they tried to get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	Tom	Tom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	guinea	guinea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	pig	pig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | defenses *= defense* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **get** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | defenses *= defense* *not said here* |  |  | Tom |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **stand** | past | the guinea pig |  |  | the way |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in way=Location |

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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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