---
title: So when the largest elephant in the Zoo was carried off by a dragon,… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So when the largest elephant in the Zoo was carried off by a dragon, the papers gave up pretending--and put ALARMING PLAGUE OF DRAGONS at the top of the paper. Who acts: dragon, papers. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 66

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So when the largest elephant in the Zoo was carried off by a dragon, the papers gave up pretending--and put ALARMING PLAGUE OF DRAGONS at the top of the paper.

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**Who acts:** dragon, papers · **What happens:** carry off, give up, pretend, put, plague · **To what, where:** largest elephant, ALARMING PLAGUE, top, DRAGONS

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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 (dragon, papers), 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:pg23661:5:66
# text = So when the largest elephant in the Zoo was carried off by a dragon, the papers gave up pretending--and put ALARMING PLAGUE OF DRAGONS at the top of the paper.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	largest	large	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Zoo	Zoo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	carried	carry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	off	off	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	papers	paper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	pretending	pretend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
24	ALARMING	alarming	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	PLAGUE	plague	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	OF	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	DRAGONS	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry off** | past · passive | a dragon | the largest elephant in the Zoo |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **give up** | past | the papers |  |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pretend** | gerund | the papers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **put** | participle | the papers *not said here* | ALARMING PLAGUE of DRAGONS |  | the top of the paper |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent plague=Theme at top=Destination |
| 5 | **plague** |  |  | DRAGONS |  |  |  |  | nom plague «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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