---
title: Then, too, little things began to be missed. — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, too, little things began to be missed. Who acts: little things. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/38/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 38

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Then, too, little things began to be missed.

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**Who acts:** little things · **What happens:** begin, miss

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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 (little things), 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:pg23661:4:38
# text = Then, too, little things began to be missed.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	missed	miss	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | little things |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **miss** | to-infinitive · passive | little things *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S» |

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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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