---
title: They were green with scales, and they had four legs and a long tail… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They were green with scales, and they had four legs and a long tail and great wings like bats' wings, only the wings were a pale, half-transparent yellow, like the gear-boxes on bicycles. Who acts: sizes. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/64/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/) / 64

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 64

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were green with scales, and they had four legs and a long tail and great wings like bats' wings, only the wings were a pale, half-transparent yellow, like the gear-boxes on bicycles.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sizes · **What happens:** be, have · **To what, where:** four legs, bicycles

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (sizes), 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:pg23661:5:64
# text = They were green with scales, and they had four legs and a long tail and great wings like bats' wings, only the wings were a pale, half-transparent yellow, like the gear-boxes on bicycles.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	scales	scale	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
10	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	bats	bat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	'	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	cop	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
29	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
31	half	half	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	33	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	transparent	transparent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
36	like	like	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
38	gear	gear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	boxes	box	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
41	on	on	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	bicycles	bicycle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | sizes *= size* |  |  |  |  | with scales; green *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | sizes *= size* | four legs and a long tail and great wings like bats's wings and the wings and a pale yellow gear boxes |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | sizes *= size* *not said here* |  |  | bicycles |  | like a pale yellow gear boxes | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/63/)
- next →: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/65/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/)