---
title: They climbed up the dragon's side and dumped the children down on hi… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They climbed up the dragon's side and dumped the children down on his icy spine, with their backs against the North Pole. Who acts: dwarfs. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 107

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They climbed up the dragon's side and dumped the children down on his icy spine, with their backs against the North Pole.

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**Who acts:** dwarfs · **What happens:** climb up, dump down · **To what, where:** side, children, icy spine

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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 (dwarfs), 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:pg23661:8:107
# text = They climbed up the dragon's side and dumped the children down on his icy spine, with their backs against the North Pole.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	dumped	dump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	icy	icy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	spine	spine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
21	against	against	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	North	North	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	Pole	Pole	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb up** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* | the dragon's side |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **dump down** | past | dwarfs *= dwarf* *not said here* | the children |  | dragon's icy spine |  | with dwarfs's backs against the North Pole; down *property* | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent child=Theme on spine=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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