---
title: A flight of purple dragons must have crossed the island in the night… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: A flight of purple dragons must have crossed the island in the night, and this poor one must have knocked its wing and broken it against the pillar. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 3, sentence 84

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A flight of purple dragons must have crossed the island in the night, and this poor one must have knocked its wing and broken it against the pillar.

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**What happens:** cross, knock, break · **To what, where:** flight, poor one

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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: 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:pg23661:3:84
# text = A flight of purple dragons must have crossed the island in the night, and this poor one must have knocked its wing and broken it against the pillar.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	purple	purple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	dragons	dragon	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux	_	_
8	crossed	cross	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
17	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	knocked	knock	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	wing	wing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	against	against	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | must · perfect · passive |  | a flight of purple dragons |  |  | night |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **knock** | must · perfect · passive |  | this poor one |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Destination wing=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | participle |  | flight |  |  |  | against the pillar | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |

<!-- .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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