---
title: The things that were missed were nothing much at first--a few little… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The things that were missed were nothing much at first--a few little elephants, a hippopotamus or two, and some giraffes, and things like that. Who acts: 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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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 40

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The things that were missed were nothing much at first--a few little elephants, a hippopotamus or two, and some giraffes, and things like that.

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**Who acts:** things · **What happens:** miss, be · **To what, where:** things, nothing

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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 (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:pg23661:4:40
# text = The things that were missed were nothing much at first--a few little elephants, a hippopotamus or two, and some giraffes, and things like that.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	missed	miss	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	_
8	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hippopotamus	hippopotamus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	giraffes	giraffe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
28	like	like	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **miss** | past · passive |  | the things |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the things | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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