---
title: But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight of dragons grew small in the distance. Who acts: half, flight. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 27

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But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight of dragons grew small in the distance.

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**Who acts:** half, flight · **What happens:** shake, push back, grow · **To what, where:** head, sword

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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 (half, flight), 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:pg23661:6:27
# text = But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight of dragons grew small in the distance.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	pushed	push	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
17	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
18	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shake** | past | half | half's head |  |  | again |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **push back** | past | half *not said here* | the sword |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme |
| 3 | **grow** | past | the flight of dragons |  |  |  |  | in the distance; small *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in distance=Location |

<!-- .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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