---
title: It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings, and every now and… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings, and every now and then it moaned and leaned its head back against the rocky pillar as though it felt faint. Who acts: tail. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 82

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It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings, and every now and then it moaned and leaned its head back against the rocky pillar as though it felt faint.

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**Who acts:** tail · **What happens:** lick, moan, learn back, feel · **To what, where:** one, head

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This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tail), 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:pg23661:3:82
# text = It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings, and every now and then it moaned and leaned its head back against the rocky pillar as though it felt faint.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	licking	lick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
7	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
8	umbrella	umbrella	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	y	y	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
15	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	moaned	moan	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	leaned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
25	against	against	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	rocky	rocky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
30	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
33	faint	faint	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lick** | past · progressive | tail | one of tail's purple y wings |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent one=Source |
| 2 | **moan** | past | tail |  |  |  | now; then |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **learn back** | past | tail *not said here* | tail's head |  |  |  | against the rocky pillar | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic |
| 4 | **feel** | past | tail |  |  |  |  | faint *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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