---
title: It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on t… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on tight to themselves, because they felt something was going to happen. Who acts: island, everyone, wings, something. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/136/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 136

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It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on tight to themselves, because they felt something was going to happen.

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**Who acts:** island, everyone, wings, something · **What happens:** spin, fall, hold, feel, go, happen · **To what, where:** faces

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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 (island, everyone, wings, something), 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:pg23661:4:136
# text = It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on tight to themselves, because they felt something was going to happen.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spun	spin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	everyone	everyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	7	nsubj	_	_
7	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	flat	flat	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	tight	tight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spin** | past | island |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past | everyone |  |  | wings's faces |  | flat *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on face=Location |
| 3 | **hold** | participle | island *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tight *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **feel** | past | wings *= wing* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **go** | past · progressive | something |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **happen** | to-infinitive | something *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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