---
title: In this way the Dragon was able to feed upon both men and beasts wit… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In this way the Dragon was able to feed upon both men and beasts without the least trouble to itself, as it needed not to move from the spot where it was lying. Who acts: Dragon. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In this way the Dragon was able to feed upon both men and beasts without the least trouble to itself, as it needed not to move from the spot where it was lying.

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**Who acts:** Dragon · **What happens:** be, feed, need, not move, lie · **To what, where:** way, spot

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). 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:pg640:5:8
# text = In this way the Dragon was able to feed upon both men and beasts without the least trouble to itself, as it needed not to move from the spot where it was lying.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	feed	feed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
15	without	without	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	18	amod	_	_
18	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	move	move	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	34	advmod	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Dragon |  |  | this way |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **feed** | to-infinitive | the Dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon both men and beasts; without the least trouble to Dragon | vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **need** | past | Dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **move** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Dragon *not said here* |  |  | the spot |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme from spot=Trajectory |
| 5 | **lie** | past · progressive | Dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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