---
title: And when the Dragon saw them start, he turned and flew after them, w… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And when the Dragon saw them start, he turned and flew after them, with his great wings flapping like clouds at sunset, and the Hippogriff's wide wings were snowy as clouds at moonrise. Who acts: Dragon, books, great wings, wide wings. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 2, sentence 74

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And when the Dragon saw them start, he turned and flew after them, with his great wings flapping like clouds at sunset, and the Hippogriff's wide wings were snowy as clouds at moonrise.

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**Who acts:** Dragon, books, great wings, wide wings · **What happens:** see, start, turn, fly, flap, be · **To what, where:** books

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 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, books, great wings, wide 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:pg23661:2:74
# text = And when the Dragon saw them start, he turned and flew after them, with his great wings flapping like clouds at sunset, and the Hippogriff's wide wings were snowy as clouds at moonrise.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
13	after	after	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
20	flapping	flap	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	sunset	sunset	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Hippogriff	Hippogriff	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	snowy	snowy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	_
36	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	moonrise	moonrise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the Dragon | books *= book* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **start** | infinitive | books *= book* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **turn** | past | Dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **fly** | past | Dragon *not said here* |  |  |  | after books *= book* | with King's great wings | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **flap** | gerund | King's great wings *not said here* |  |  |  | sunset | like clouds | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | past | the Hippogriff's wide wings |  |  |  |  | as clouds at moonrise; snowy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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