---
title: And these flames were the Aurora Borealis, which the children had se… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And these flames were the Aurora Borealis, which the children had seen as far away as Forest Hill. Who acts: flames. 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 34

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And these flames were the Aurora Borealis, which the children had seen as far away as Forest Hill.

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**Who acts:** flames · **What happens:** be, see · **To what, where:** Aurora Borealis, children

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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 (flames), 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:pg23661:8:34
# text = And these flames were the Aurora Borealis, which the children had seen as far away as Forest Hill.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	Aurora	Aurora	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Borealis	Borealis	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
14	as	as	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	away	away	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	Forest	Forest	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	Hill	Hill	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | this flames | the Aurora Borealis |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past · perfect · passive |  | the children |  |  |  | as Forest Hill; away *property* | tree rules |

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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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