---
title: They were crossing a very rough, snowy field when Jane first noticed… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They were crossing a very rough, snowy field when Jane first noticed the animals. Who acts: George, Jane. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 88

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They were crossing a very rough, snowy field when Jane first noticed the animals.

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**Who acts:** George, Jane · **What happens:** cross, notice · **To what, where:** rough snowy field, animals

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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 (George, Jane), 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:pg23661:7:88
# text = They were crossing a very rough, snowy field when Jane first noticed the animals.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	snowy	snowy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
10	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	13	mark	_	_
11	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	13	advmod	_	_
13	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past · progressive | George | a rough snowy field |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent field=Patient |
| 2 | **notice** | past | Jane | the animals |  |  |  | first *property* | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer animal=Stimulus |

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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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