---
title: There were dragons on the pavement, and dragons on the roadway, drag… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: There were dragons on the pavement, and dragons on the roadway, dragons basking on the front doorsteps of public buildings, and dragons preening their wings on the roofs in the hot afternoon sun. The town was quite green with them. Who acts: dragons. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit,
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were dragons on the pavement, and dragons on the roadway, dragons basking on the front doorsteps of public buildings, and dragons preening their wings on the roofs in the hot afternoon sun. The town was quite green with them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dragons · **What happens:** be, bask, preen · **To what, where:** pavement, front doorsteps, wings, roofs

<!-- .vabout -->
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), 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:pg23661:6:5
# text = There were dragons on the pavement, and dragons on the roadway, dragons basking on the front doorsteps of public buildings, and dragons preening their wings on the roofs in the hot afternoon sun. The town was quite green with them.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	pavement	pavement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	roadway	roadway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	appos	_	_
15	basking	bask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	front	front	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	doorsteps	doorstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	public	public	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	buildings	building	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
26	preening	preen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	roofs	roof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
36	sun.	sun.	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	_
39	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
40	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	parataxis	_	_
42	with	with	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | dragons |  |  | the pavement; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on pavement=Location |
| 2 | **bask** | gerund | dragons *not said here* |  |  | the front doorsteps of public buildings |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **preen** | gerund | dragons | dragons's wings |  | the roofs |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  | afternoon | with dragons *= dragon*; green *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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