---
title: As the Queen went in, keeping carefully in the middle of the arch, a… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: As the Queen went in, keeping carefully in the middle of the arch, all the snakes lifted their wicked, flat heads and stared at her with their wicked, yellow eyes. Who acts: snakes. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 58

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As the Queen went in, keeping carefully in the middle of the arch, all the snakes lifted their wicked, flat heads and stared at her with their wicked, yellow eyes.

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**Who acts:** snakes · **What happens:** go in, keep, lift, stare · **To what, where:** middle, wicked flat heads

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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 (snakes), 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:pg23661:9:58
# text = As the Queen went in, keeping carefully in the middle of the arch, all the snakes lifted their wicked, flat heads and stared at her with their wicked, yellow eyes.
1	As	as	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
8	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	arch	arch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
21	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	flat	flat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
31	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
33	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go in** | past |  |  |  |  |  | as the Queen | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **keep** | gerund |  |  |  | the middle of the arch |  | carefully *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location |
| 3 | **lift** | past | all snakes | snakes's wicked flat heads |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 4 | **stare** | past | all snakes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at arch; with snakes's wicked yellow eyes | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at she=Theme |

<!-- .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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