---
title: The largest kind ate elephants as long as there were any, and then w… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The largest kind ate elephants as long as there were any, and then went on with horses and cows. Who acts: largest kind, any. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/89/)

<!-- 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/) / 89

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The largest kind ate elephants as long as there were any, and then went on with horses and cows.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** largest kind, any · **What happens:** eat, be, go on · **To what, where:** elephants

<!-- .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 (largest kind, any), 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:pg23661:5:89
# text = The largest kind ate elephants as long as there were any, and then went on with horses and cows.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	largest	large	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	amod	_	_
3	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	elephants	elephant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
11	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
15	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	on	on	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past | the largest kind | elephants |  |  |  | long *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent elephant=Patient |
| 2 | **be** | past | any |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go on** | past | the largest kind *not said here* |  |  |  | then | with horses and cows | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- 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 88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/88/)
- next →: [sentence 90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/90/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/)