---
title: The creature under his eye wriggled a little in the castor oil, and… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The creature under his eye wriggled a little in the castor oil, and he went on: "Yes; a batlike wing. Who acts: creature. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 38

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The creature under his eye wriggled a little in the castor oil, and he went on: "Yes; a batlike wing.

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**Who acts:** creature · **What happens:** wriggle, go on · **To what, where:** little, castor oil, batlike wing

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (creature), 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:pg23661:5:38
# text = The creature under his eye wriggled a little in the castor oil, and he went on: "Yes; a batlike wing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	under	under	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	wriggled	wriggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	castor	castor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
19	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	24	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	batlike	batlike	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wriggle** | past | the creature under creature's eye | a little |  | the castor oil |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **go on** | past | creature | a batlike wing |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=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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