---
title: "We are the sealskin dwarfs," said the brown people, twisting their… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: "We are the sealskin dwarfs," said the brown people, twisting their furry bodies in and out of the crowd like the changing glass in kaleidoscopes. " Who acts: We, sealskin dwarfs. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 79

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"We are the sealskin dwarfs," said the brown people, twisting their furry bodies in and out of the crowd like the changing glass in kaleidoscopes. "

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**Who acts:** We, sealskin dwarfs · **What happens:** be, say, twist, change · **To what, where:** sealskin dwarfs, brown people, furry bodies · **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 (We, sealskin dwarfs), 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:pg23661:8:79
# text = "We are the sealskin dwarfs," said the brown people, twisting their furry bodies in and out of the crowd like the changing glass in kaleidoscopes. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sealskin	sealskin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	dwarfs	dwarf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	twisting	twist	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	furry	furry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	bodies	body	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
24	like	like	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	changing	change	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	amod	_	_
27	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	kaleidoscopes	kaleidoscope	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | We | the sealskin dwarfs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the sealskin dwarfs | the brown people |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent people=Topic |
| 3 | **twist** | gerund | the sealskin dwarfs *not said here* | dwarfs's furry bodies |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent body=Theme |
| 4 | **change** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «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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