---
title: Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to be any colder… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to be any colder without breaking the thermometer, it stopped. Who acts: dragon. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 25

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Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to be any colder without breaking the thermometer, it stopped.

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**Who acts:** dragon · **What happens:** be, not manage, not be, break, stop · **To what, where:** thermometer

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon), 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:pg23661:9:25
# text = Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to be any colder without breaking the thermometer, it stopped.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	colder	cold	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	xcomp	_	_
17	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	thermometer	thermometer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | dragon |  |  |  | then | cold *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **manage** | could | dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** | to-infinitive | dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | cold *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **break** | gerund | dragon *not said here* | the thermometer |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thermometer=Patient |
| 5 | **stop** | past | dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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