---
title: The guinea pigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men an… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The guinea pigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women and children would have changed sizes too, if they had not had the sense to hold on to themselves, very tight indeed, with both hands; which, of course, the animals could not be expected to know how to do. Who acts: guinea p
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/140/)

<!-- 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/) / 140

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 140

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The guinea pigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women and children would have changed sizes too, if they had not had the sense to hold on to themselves, very tight indeed, with both hands; which, of course, the animals could not be expected to know how to do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** guinea pigs, elephants, men, sizes, animals · **What happens:** get, change, not have, hold on, not expect, know · **To what, where:** sizes, sense, animals · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (guinea pigs, elephants, men, sizes), 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:pg23661:4:140
# text = The guinea pigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women and children would have changed sizes too, if they had not had the sense to hold on to themselves, very tight indeed, with both hands; which, of course, the animals could not be expected to know how to do.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	guinea	guinea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
22	changed	change	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
23	sizes	size	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	too	too	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	parataxis	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	acl	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	RP	_	34	compound:prt	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
39	very	very	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	tight	tight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	conj	_	_
41	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	with	with	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	45	det	_	_
45	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
47	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	57	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
49	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
50	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	57	nsubj:pass	_	_
54	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	57	aux	_	_
55	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	57	advmod	_	_
56	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	57	aux:pass	_	_
57	expected	expect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
58	to	to	PART	TO	_	59	mark	_	_
59	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	57	xcomp	_	_
60	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	62	advmod	_	_
61	to	to	PART	TO	_	62	mark	_	_
62	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	59	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | the guinea pigs |  |  |  |  | small *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **get** | past | the elephants |  |  |  |  | big *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **change** | would · perfect | the men and women and children | sizes |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent size=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | sizes *= size* | the sense |  |  |  | with both hands | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient |
| 5 | **hold on** | to-infinitive | sizes *= size* *not said here* | the sense *not said here* | sizes *= size* |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **expect** | could · passive |  | the animals |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the animals *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/139/)
- next →: [sentence 141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/141/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/)