---
title: Then the muttering stopped--and there was a silence so deep that Jan… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the muttering stopped--and there was a silence so deep that Jane was afraid to howl in it. Who acts: muttering, Jane. 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 97

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Then the muttering stopped--and there was a silence so deep that Jane was afraid to howl in it.

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**Who acts:** muttering, Jane · **What happens:** stop, be, howl · **To what, where:** silence

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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 (muttering, Jane), 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:pg23661:8:97
# text = Then the muttering stopped--and there was a silence so deep that Jane was afraid to howl in it.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	muttering	muttering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	Jane	Jane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	howl	howl	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stop** | past | the muttering |  |  |  | then |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is a** | past | the muttering *not said here* | a silence |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | Jane |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **howl** | to-infinitive | Jane *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in muttering | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in it=Theme |

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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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