---
title: It's almost like"--she moved back a step to get a better view of it-… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It's almost like"--she moved back a step to get a better view of it--"it's almost like a dragon." Who acts: lump. 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 49

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It's almost like"--she moved back a step to get a better view of it--"it's almost like a dragon."

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**Who acts:** lump · **What happens:** be, get, view · **To what, where:** better view, lump

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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 (lump), 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:pg23661:8:49
# text = It's almost like"--she moved back a step to get a better view of it--"it's almost like a dragon."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
3	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
4	like	like	ADP	IN	_	3	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	amod	_	_
16	view	view	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | lump |  |  |  |  | a step *obl:unmarked*; almost, move *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | lump *not said here* | a better view of lump |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer view=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | present | lump |  |  |  |  | like a dragon; almost *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **view** *in a quote* |  |  | lump |  |  |  |  | nom view «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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