---
title: So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and then they remem… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and then they remembered what St. George had said. Who acts: dragons, George. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/6/81/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 81

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So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and then they remembered what St. George had said.

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**Who acts:** dragons, George · **What happens:** open, peep, remember, say · **To what, where:** door · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, George), 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:pg23661:6:81
# text = So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and then they remembered what St. George had said.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	3	obl	_	_
8	just	just	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	peep	peep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
11	in	in	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	obj	_	_
18	St.	St.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod:desc	_	_
19	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	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 | **open** | past | dragons *= dragon* | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent door=Theme at once=Location |
| 2 | **peep** | to-infinitive | dragons *= dragon* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **remember** | past | dragons *= dragon* |  |  |  | then |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | George  St. |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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