---
title: Up to now the children had only seen the most beautiful and wondrous… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Up to now the children had only seen the most beautiful and wondrous things, but now they began to be sorry they had done what they were told not to, and the difference between "lawn" and "grass" did not seem so great as it had at Forest Hill. Who acts: children, difference, grass. A sentence of «Th
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 69

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Up to now the children had only seen the most beautiful and wondrous things, but now they began to be sorry they had done what they were told not to, and the difference between "lawn" and "grass" did not seem so great as it had at Forest Hill.

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**Who acts:** children, difference, grass · **What happens:** see, begin, be, do, not tell, not seem · **To what, where:** beautiful things, children, Forest Hill · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (children, difference, grass), 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:pg23661:8:69
# text = Up to now the children had only seen the most beautiful and wondrous things, but now they began to be sorry they had done what they were told not to, and the difference between "lawn" and "grass" did not seem so great as it had at Forest Hill.
1	Up	up	ADV	RB	_	8	nsubj	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
10	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	11	advmod	_	_
11	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	wondrous	wondrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
14	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	cop	_	_
22	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	ccomp	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	advcl	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	difference	difference	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	_
36	between	between	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	lawn	lawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	35	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	42	punct	_	_
44	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
45	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
46	seem	seem	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	parataxis	_	_
47	so	so	ADV	RB	_	48	advmod	_	_
48	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	xcomp	_	_
49	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	51	mark	_	_
50	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
51	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	advcl	_	_
52	at	at	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	Forest	Forest	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	54	compound	_	_
54	Hill	Hill	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past · perfect · passive |  | the beautiful things |  |  | now |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  | now |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | to-infinitive | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | past · perfect | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient what=Topic |
| 6 | **not** **seem** | past · do-support | the difference between lawn |  |  |  |  | great *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **have** | past | grass |  |  | Forest Hill |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: 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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