---
title: Just then they heard a dry, rustling clatter on the rocks above them… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Just then they heard a dry, rustling clatter on the rocks above them and a snorting sound. " Who acts: wings. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/10/114/)

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 10, sentence 114

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Just then they heard a dry, rustling clatter on the rocks above them and a snorting sound. "

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**Who acts:** wings · **What happens:** hear, rustle, snort · **To what, where:** dry, clatter, rocks

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wings), 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:pg23661:10:114
# text = Just then they heard a dry, rustling clatter on the rocks above them and a snorting sound. "
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	rustling	rustle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
9	clatter	clatter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
13	above	above	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	snorting	snort	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	amod	_	_
18	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | wings *= wing* | a dry |  |  | then |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer dry=Stimulus |
| 2 | **rustle** | gerund | wings *= wing* *not said here* | clatter |  | the rocks above wings |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location clatter=Theme |
| 3 | **snort** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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