---
title: There were white rabbits and white hares and all sorts and sizes of… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: There were white rabbits and white hares and all sorts and sizes of white birds, and some larger creatures in the shadows of the hedges that Jane was sure were wolves and bears. Who acts: white rabbits, hedges, larger creatures. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 7, with
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 7, sentence 89

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There were white rabbits and white hares and all sorts and sizes of white birds, and some larger creatures in the shadows of the hedges that Jane was sure were wolves and bears.

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**Who acts:** white rabbits, hedges, larger creatures · **What happens:** be, shadow · **To what, where:** wolves, hedges

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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 (white rabbits, hedges, larger creatures), 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:pg23661:7:89
# text = There were white rabbits and white hares and all sorts and sizes of white birds, and some larger creatures in the shadows of the hedges that Jane was sure were wolves and bears.
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	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	hares	hare	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sizes	size	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
19	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	amod	_	_
20	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	hedges	hedge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
28	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	acl:relcl	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	parataxis	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	bears	bear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | white rabbits and white hares and all sorts and sizes of white birds |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the hedges |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | some larger creatures in the shadows of the hedges | wolves and bears |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **shadow** |  |  | the hedges |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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