---
title: He went straight home and told his little elephant; and the elephant… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: He went straight home and told his little elephant; and the elephant cheered him up so much that presently the two grew quite absorbed in a top that the elephant was spinning with his little trunk. Who acts: Tom, elephant. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 4, with its d
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 4, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He went straight home and told his little elephant; and the elephant cheered him up so much that presently the two grew quite absorbed in a top that the elephant was spinning with his little trunk.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Tom, elephant · **What happens:** go, tell, cheer up, absorb, spin · **To what, where:** little elephant, Tom, two, top · **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 (Tom, elephant), 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:pg23661:4:75
# text = He went straight home and told his little elephant; and the elephant cheered him up so much that presently the two grew quite absorbed in a top that the elephant was spinning with his little trunk.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	home	home	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	cheered	cheer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
24	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	absorbed	absorb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	acl	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Tom |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Tom *not said here* |  | Tom's little elephant |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent elephant=Recipient |
| 3 | **cheer up** | past | the elephant | Tom |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 4 | **absorb** | past · passive |  | the two |  | a top |  |  | vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **spin** | past · progressive | the elephant | a top *not said here* |  |  |  | with Tom's little trunk | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent top=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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