---
title: So then they turned on the hail--only half on, for fear of breaking… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So then they turned on the hail--only half on, for fear of breaking people's windows--and after a while there were no more dragons to be seen moving. Who acts: dragons, fear. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/6/102/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 102

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So then they turned on the hail--only half on, for fear of breaking people's windows--and after a while there were no more dragons to be seen moving.

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**Who acts:** dragons, fear · **What happens:** turn, break, see, move · **To what, where:** hail, windows

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragons, fear), 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:pg23661:6:102
# text = So then they turned on the hail--only half on, for fear of breaking people's windows--and after a while there were no more dragons to be seen moving.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hail	hail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	only	only	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
10	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	11	advmod	_	_
11	on	on	ADV	RB	_	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
15	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
17	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	windows	window	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	after	after	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
25	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	26	expl	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
27	no	no	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	amod	_	_
29	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl	_	_
33	moving	move	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | dragons *= dragon* |  |  | the hail | then; while | for fear | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme on hail=Trajectory |
| 2 | **break** | gerund | fear *not said here* | people's windows |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer window=Patient |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive · passive | dragons *= dragon* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **move** | gerund | dragons *= dragon* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |

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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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