---
title: It was exactly like winding a top--only the peg was the pillar, and… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It was exactly like winding a top--only the peg was the pillar, and the dragon's tail was the string. Who acts: dragon, peg, tail. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, 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/pg23661/4/131/)

<!-- 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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/) / 131

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was exactly like winding a top--only the peg was the pillar, and the dragon's tail was the string.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dragon, peg, tail · **What happens:** wind, be · **To what, where:** top, pillar, string

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (dragon, peg, tail), 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:pg23661:4:131
# text = It was exactly like winding a top--only the peg was the pillar, and the dragon's tail was the string.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	winding	wind	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	top	top	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	peg	peg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wind** | past · progressive | dragon | a top |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme top=Result |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the peg | the pillar and the string |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | the dragon's tail | the string |  |  |  |  | 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 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/130/)
- next →: [sentence 132](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/132/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/)