--- title: Before they started, the white grouse thanked them in a few pleasant… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics description: Before they started, the white grouse thanked them in a few pleasant, well-chosen words, and then they took a sideways slanting run and started off again on the great slide, and so away toward the North Pole and the twinkling, beautiful lights. Who acts: Father, white grouse. A sentence of «The Book --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/131/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/) / 131 # The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 131 Before they started, the white grouse thanked them in a few pleasant, well-chosen words, and then they took a sideways slanting run and started off again on the great slide, and so away toward the North Pole and the twinkling, beautiful lights. **Who acts:** Father, white grouse · **What happens:** start, thank, choose, take, slant, start off · **To what, where:** Father, few pleasant, slanting run, great slide This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Father, white grouse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg23661:7:131 # text = Before they started, the white grouse thanked them in a few pleasant, well-chosen words, and then they took a sideways slanting run and started off again on the great slide, and so away toward the North Pole and the twinkling, beautiful lights. 1 Before before SCONJ IN _ 3 mark _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 started start VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 6 white white ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 grouse grouse NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nsubj _ _ 8 thanked thank VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 9 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 obj _ _ 10 in in ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 11 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 13 det _ _ 12 few few ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 13 amod _ _ 13 pleasant pleasant ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 8 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 15 well well ADV RB Degree=Pos 17 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 15 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 17 chosen choose VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 18 amod _ _ 18 words word NOUN NNS Number=Plur 13 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 20 and and CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 21 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 23 advmod _ _ 22 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 23 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 24 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 25 sideways sideways ADV RB _ 26 advmod _ _ 26 slanting slant VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 27 amod _ _ 27 run run NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obj _ _ 28 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 29 started start VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 23 conj _ _ 30 off off ADP RP _ 29 compound:prt _ _ 31 again again ADV RB _ 29 advmod _ _ 32 on on ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 35 det _ _ 34 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 35 amod _ _ 35 slide slide NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 38 so so ADV RB _ 39 advmod _ _ 39 away away ADV RB _ 23 advmod _ _ 40 toward toward ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 41 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 42 North North PROPN NNP Number=Sing 43 compound _ _ 43 Pole Pole PROPN NNP Number=Sing 39 obl _ _ 44 and and CCONJ CC _ 46 cc _ _ 45 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 46 det _ _ 46 twinkling twinkling NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 47 , , PUNCT , _ 49 punct _ _ 48 beautiful beautiful ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 49 amod _ _ 49 lights light NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 50 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **start** | past | Father | | | | | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 2 | **thank** *speech: thank* | past | the white grouse | | Father | a few pleasant and chosen words | | | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | | 3 | **choose** | participle | | | | | | well *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **take** | past | Father | a slanting run | | | then | beautiful lights *obl*; away *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent run=Theme | | 5 | **slant** | gerund | | | | | | sideways *property* | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 6 | **start off** | past | Father *not said here* | | | the great slide | again | | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/130/) - next →: [Opening, part 8, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/1/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/7/)