---
title: With its tiny trunk the elephant pointed out a date--the fifteenth o… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: With its tiny trunk the elephant pointed out a date--the fifteenth of August, the Princess's birthday, and looked anxiously at its master. 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 26

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With its tiny trunk the elephant pointed out a date--the fifteenth of August, the Princess's birthday, and looked anxiously at its master.

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**What happens:** point out, look

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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: 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:pg23661:4:26
# text = With its tiny trunk the elephant pointed out a date--the fifteenth of August, the Princess's birthday, and looked anxiously at its master.
1	With	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	pointed	point	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	amod	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	date	date	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fifteenth	fifteenth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	August	August	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	's	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	birthday	birthday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
24	anxiously	anxiously	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **point out** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **look** | past |  |  |  |  |  | at creature's master; anxiously *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at master=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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