---
title: The great slide went on and on, and the lights did not seem to come… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The great slide went on and on, and the lights did not seem to come much nearer, and the white silence wrapped around them as they slid along the wide, icy path. Who acts: great slide, lights. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 1

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The great slide went on and on, and the lights did not seem to come much nearer, and the white silence wrapped around them as they slid along the wide, icy path.

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**Who acts:** great slide, lights · **What happens:** go, not seem, come, wrap, slide · **To what, where:** white silence, wide icy path

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great slide, lights), 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:pg23661:8:1
# text = The great slide went on and on, and the lights did not seem to come much nearer, and the white silence wrapped around them as they slid along the wide, icy path.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	slide	slide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	on	on	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
12	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	much	much	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
24	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
25	around	around	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	slid	slide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
30	along	along	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
32	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
34	icy	icy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the great slide | the white silence |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **seem** | past · do-support | the lights |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **come** | to-infinitive | the lights *not said here* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wrap** | participle |  | the white silence *not said here* |  |  |  | around lights *= light* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme around they=Destination |
| 5 | **slide** | past | lights *= light* |  |  | the wide icy path |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along path=Trajectory |

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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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