---
title: The dancing-ring broke up suddenly, and the next moment hundreds of… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: The dancing-ring broke up suddenly, and the next moment hundreds of furry arms clutched at George and Jane, and they found themselves in the middle of a great, soft, heaving crowd of little fat people in brown fur dresses, and the white silence was quite gone. Who acts: dancing ring, boots, little f
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/65/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 65

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The dancing-ring broke up suddenly, and the next moment hundreds of furry arms clutched at George and Jane, and they found themselves in the middle of a great, soft, heaving crowd of little fat people in brown fur dresses, and the white silence was quite gone.

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**Who acts:** dancing ring, boots, little fat people, white silence · **What happens:** break up, clutch, find, heave, dress, be · **To what, where:** next moment hundreds, furry arms, boots, middle, brown fur

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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 (dancing ring, boots, little fat people, white silence), 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:pg23661:8:65
# text = The dancing-ring broke up suddenly, and the next moment hundreds of furry arms clutched at George and Jane, and they found themselves in the middle of a great, soft, heaving crowd of little fat people in brown fur dresses, and the white silence was quite gone.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	furry	furry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	_
17	clutched	clutch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	George	George	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl:agent	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
26	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
32	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
34	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
36	heaving	heave	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	37	amod	_	_
37	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
40	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	37	nmod	_	_
42	in	in	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	fur	fur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
45	dresses	dress	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj	_	_
51	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	cop	_	_
52	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break up** | past | the dancing ring | the next moment hundreds of furry arms |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **clutch** | participle |  | furry arms *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find** | past | boots *= boot* | boots *= boot* |  | the middle of a great soft heaving crowd of little fat people |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Topic |
| 4 | **heave** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn push-12 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **dress** | present | little fat people *not said here* |  |  | brown fur |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | past | the white silence |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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