The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 6, sentence 5

There were dragons on the pavement, and dragons on the roadway, dragons basking on the front doorsteps of public buildings, and dragons preening their wings on the roofs in the hot afternoon sun. The town was quite green with them.

Who acts: dragons · What happens: be, bask, preen · To what, where: pavement, front doorsteps, wings, roofs

This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragons), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 were	expl
2	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	dragons	dragon	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 were	nsubj
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 pavement	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 pavement	det
6	pavement	pavement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 were	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 dragons	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 dragons	cc
9	dragons	dragon	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 were	nsubj
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 roadway	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 roadway	det
12	roadway	roadway	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 dragons	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 dragons	punct
14	dragons	dragon	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 roadway	appos
15	basking	bask	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 dragons	acl
16	on	on	ADP	_	19 doorsteps	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 doorsteps	det
18	front	front	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 doorsteps	amod
19	doorsteps	doorstep	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 basking	obl
20	of	of	ADP	_	22 buildings	case
21	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 buildings	amod
22	buildings	building	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 doorsteps	nmod
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 preening	punct
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 preening	cc
25	dragons	dragon	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 preening	nsubj
26	preening	preen	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 were	advcl
27	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	28 wings	nmod:poss
28	wings	wing	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 preening	obj
29	on	on	ADP	_	31 roofs	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 roofs	det
31	roofs	roof	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 preening	obl
32	in	in	ADP	_	35 afternoon	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 afternoon	det
34	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	35 afternoon	amod
35	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 green	obl
36	sun.	sun.	ADP	_	38 town	case
37	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 town	det
38	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 afternoon	nmod
39	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 green	cop
40	quite	quite	ADV	_	41 green	advmod
41	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 preening	parataxis
42	with	with	ADP	_	43 them	case
43	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 green	obl
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 were	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	past	dragons		the pavement; there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on pavement=Location
2	bask	gerund	dragons not said here		the front doorsteps of public buildings			vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	preen	gerund	dragons	dragons's wings	the roofs			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Patient
4	is	past				afternoon	with dragons = dragon; green property	tree rules

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.

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/6/5/