---
title: They fell on George and Jane like snowflakes, and, like flakes of fa… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: They fell on George and Jane like snowflakes, and, like flakes of fallen snow lying one above another, they grew into a thicker and thicker covering, so that presently the children were buried under a heap of white feathers, and only their faces peeped out. Who acts: hundreds, fallen snow, faces. A 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 118

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They fell on George and Jane like snowflakes, and, like flakes of fallen snow lying one above another, they grew into a thicker and thicker covering, so that presently the children were buried under a heap of white feathers, and only their faces peeped out.

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**Who acts:** hundreds, fallen snow, faces · **What happens:** fall, lie, grow, bury, peep out · **To what, where:** George, one, another, thicker covering, children, heap

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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 (hundreds, fallen snow, faces), 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:pg23661:8:118
# text = They fell on George and Jane like snowflakes, and, like flakes of fallen snow lying one above another, they grew into a thicker and thicker covering, so that presently the children were buried under a heap of white feathers, and only their faces peeped out.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	snowflakes	snowflake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	flakes	flake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	amod	_	_
16	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	obj	_	_
19	above	above	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
26	thicker	thick	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	amod	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	thicker	thick	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	conj	_	_
29	covering	covering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	37	mark	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	fixed	_	_
33	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
36	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
38	under	under	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	heap	heap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
46	only	only	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
47	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	faces	face	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	_
49	peeped	peep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
50	out	out	ADP	RP	_	49	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | past | hundreds *= hundred* |  |  | George and Jane |  | like snowflakes | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on george=Location |
| 2 | **fall** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **lie** | gerund | fallen snow *not said here* | one |  | another |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location one=Theme |
| 4 | **grow** | past | hundreds *= hundred* |  |  |  |  | into a thicker covering *result*; like flakes of fallen snow | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into covering=Result |
| 5 | **bury** | past · passive |  | the children |  | a heap of white feathers |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme under heap=Destination |
| 6 | **peep out** | participle | hundreds's faces |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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