---
title: There was no one about in the streets except dragons, and the place… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no one about in the streets except dragons, and the place was simply swarming with them. Who acts: one, place. 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 3

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There was no one about in the streets except dragons, and the place was simply swarming with them.

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**Who acts:** one, place · **What happens:** be, swarm

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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 (one, place), 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:pg23661:6:3
# text = There was no one about in the streets except dragons, and the place was simply swarming with them.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	about	about	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	_
9	except	except	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	simply	simply	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	swarming	swarm	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no one in the streets except dragons |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **swarm** | past · progressive | the place |  |  |  |  | with hands *= hand*; simply *property* | vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «PP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with they=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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