---
title: He would creep into the burrows made by the great rabbits; and excur… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He would creep into the burrows made by the great rabbits; and excursionists, sporting on the downs, would see his long, tight, whiplike tail wriggling down a burrow and out of sight, and before they had time to say, "There he goes," his ugly purple head would come poking out from another rabbit-hol
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/34/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 34

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He would creep into the burrows made by the great rabbits; and excursionists, sporting on the downs, would see his long, tight, whiplike tail wriggling down a burrow and out of sight, and before they had time to say, "There he goes," his ugly purple head would come poking out from another rabbit-hole--perhaps just behind them--or laugh softly to itself just in their ears.

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**Who acts:** Rotundia, excursionists, long tight whiplike tail, ugly purple head · **What happens:** creep, make, sport, see, wriggle down, have · **To what, where:** burrows, downs, long tight whiplike tail, burrow, rabbit hole, head · **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 (Rotundia, excursionists, long tight whiplike tail, ugly purple head), 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:pg23661:4:34
# text = He would creep into the burrows made by the great rabbits; and excursionists, sporting on the downs, would see his long, tight, whiplike tail wriggling down a burrow and out of sight, and before they had time to say, "There he goes," his ugly purple head would come poking out from another rabbit-hole--perhaps just behind them--or laugh softly to itself just in their ears.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	creep	creep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	burrows	burrow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	acl	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	excursionists	excursionist	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	sporting	sport	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	downs	down	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
24	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	tight	tight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	whiplike	whiplike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
30	wriggling	wriggle	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	down	down	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	burrow	burrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
35	out	out	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
40	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
41	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	advcl	_	_
43	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
45	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
47	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	48	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	50	expl	_	_
49	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	58	punct	_	_
53	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	56	nmod:poss	_	_
54	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
55	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
56	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nsubj	_	_
57	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
58	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	conj	_	_
59	poking	poke	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	58	xcomp	_	_
60	out	out	ADP	RP	_	59	compound:prt	_	_
61	from	from	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
62	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	65	det	_	_
63	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	65	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	63	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	70	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	70	advmod	_	_
68	just	just	ADV	RB	_	70	advmod	_	_
69	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	70	case	_	_
70	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
71	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	73	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	73	cc	_	_
73	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
74	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	73	advmod	_	_
75	to	to	ADP	IN	_	76	case	_	_
76	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	73	obl	_	_
77	just	just	ADV	RB	_	80	advmod	_	_
78	in	in	ADP	IN	_	80	case	_	_
79	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	80	nmod:poss	_	_
80	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	73	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
81	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **creep** | would | Rotundia |  |  | the burrows |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | participle |  | the burrows *not said here* |  |  |  | by the great rabbits | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **sport** | gerund | excursionists *not said here* |  |  | the downs |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | would | excursionists | Rotundia's long tight whiplike tail |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tail=Stimulus |
| 5 | **wriggle down** | gerund | Rotundia's long tight whiplike tail *not said here* | a burrow and sight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | past | excursionists *= excursionist* |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | excursionists *= excursionist* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **go** *in a quote* | present | Rotundia |  |  | there |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **come** | would | Rotundia's ugly purple head |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **poke out** | gerund | Rotundia's ugly purple head *not said here* |  |  | another rabbit hole |  |  | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 11 | **laugh** | infinitive | Rotundia *not said here* |  | head |  |  | in excursionists's ears; softly *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in ear=Theme |

<!-- .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.

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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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