---
title: And they wanted to play on the grass, which they were not allowed to… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And they wanted to play on the grass, which they were not allowed to do in the electric lamp-lighted garden because of the night-dew. Who acts: police, grass. 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/pg23661/5/99/)

<!-- 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/) / 99

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 5, sentence 99

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they wanted to play on the grass, which they were not allowed to do in the electric lamp-lighted garden because of the night-dew.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** police, grass · **What happens:** want, play, not allow, do, light · **To what, where:** grass, electric lighted garden

<!-- .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 (police, grass), 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:pg23661:5:99
# text = And they wanted to play on the grass, which they were not allowed to do in the electric lamp-lighted garden because of the night-dew.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
19	electric	electric	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
20	lamp	lamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	lighted	light	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
24	because	because	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	29	case	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	dew	dew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | police |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **play** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | police *not said here* |  |  | the grass |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **allow** | past · passive |  | the grass |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the grass *not said here* |  |  | the electric lighted garden |  | because the night dew | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **light** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/98/)
- next →: [sentence 100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/100/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/)