--- title: And the best of it was that when the small beasts got big and the bi… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics description: And the best of it was that when the small beasts got big and the big beasts got small the dragon got small too, and fell at the Princess's feet--a little, crawling, purple newt with wings. Who acts: small beasts, big beasts, small. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/141/) [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/) / 141 # The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 141 And the best of it was that when the small beasts got big and the big beasts got small the dragon got small too, and fell at the Princess's feet--a little, crawling, purple newt with wings. **Who acts:** small beasts, big beasts, small · **What happens:** be, get, fall, crawl · **To what, where:** feet, purple newt 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 (small beasts, big beasts, small), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg23661:4:141 # text = And the best of it was that when the small beasts got big and the big beasts got small the dragon got small too, and fell at the Princess's feet--a little, crawling, purple newt with wings. 1 And and CCONJ CC _ 3 cc _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 best good ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 0 root _ _ 4 of of ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 5 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 obl _ _ 6 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 cop _ _ 7 that that SCONJ IN _ 12 mark _ _ 8 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 12 advmod _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 10 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 11 amod _ _ 11 beasts beast NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 nsubj _ _ 12 got get VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 13 big big ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 12 xcomp _ _ 14 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 15 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 16 big big ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 17 amod _ _ 17 beasts beast NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nsubj _ _ 18 got get VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 conj _ _ 19 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 nsubj _ _ 20 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 21 dragon dragon NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj _ _ 22 got get VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 18 ccomp _ _ 23 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 xcomp _ _ 24 too too ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 26 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ _ 27 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 conj _ _ 28 at at ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 Princess Princess PROPN NNP Number=Sing 32 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 31 's 's PART POS _ 30 case _ _ 32 feet foot NOUN NNS Number=Plur 27 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 33 -- -- PUNCT , _ 35 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 34 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 35 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 12 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 37 crawling crawl VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 12 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 39 purple purple ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 amod _ _ 40 newt newt NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 obj _ _ 41 with with ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 42 wings wing NOUN NNS Number=Plur 40 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | the small beasts | | | | | big, get *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **get** | past | the big beasts | | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | | 3 | **get** | past | small | | | | | small *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer | | 4 | **fall** | past | the small beasts *not said here* | | | the Princess's feet | | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at foot=Location | | 5 | **be** | | the small beasts *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **crawl** | gerund | the small beasts *not said here* | purple newt | | | | with wings | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location newt=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/140/) - next →: [Opening, part 5, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/1/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/)