---
title: Suddenly there was a flapping of wings, and the white grouse perched… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly there was a flapping of wings, and the white grouse perched on the dragon's head and said: "Can I be of any assistance?" Who acts: flapping, white grouse. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/113/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/) / 113

# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 113

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Suddenly there was a flapping of wings, and the white grouse perched on the dragon's head and said: "Can I be of any assistance?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** flapping, white grouse · **What happens:** be, perch, say, flap · **To what, where:** white grouse, head, wings · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (flapping, white grouse), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg23661:8:113
# text = Suddenly there was a flapping of wings, and the white grouse perched on the dragon's head and said: "Can I be of any assistance?"
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	flapping	flapping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	grouse	grouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
13	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	's	PART	POS	_	16	case	_	_
18	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	assistance	assistance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a flapping of wings |  |  | there |  | suddenly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **perch** | participle |  | the white grouse *not said here* |  | the dragon's head |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on head=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the white grouse |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | can | the white grouse *= grouse* |  |  |  |  | of any assistance | tree rules |
| 5 | **flap** |  |  | wings |  |  |  |  | nom flapping «event transitive»: of=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/112/)
- next →: [sentence 114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/114/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/)