---
title: It was a tiny lizard, about half an inch long--with scales and wings. — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a tiny lizard, about half an inch long--with scales and wings. Who acts: crown. 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 52

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It was a tiny lizard, about half an inch long--with scales and wings.

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**Who acts:** crown · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** tiny lizard

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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 (crown), 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:pg23661:5:52
# text = It was a tiny lizard, about half an inch long--with scales and wings.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	lizard	lizard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	about	about	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	10	det:predet	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	inch	inch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
11	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	scales	scale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	parataxis	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | crown | a tiny lizard and half inch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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