---
title: And the next moment there was a soft whispering rustle of wings over… — The Book of Dragons · tree and pragmatics
description: And the next moment there was a soft whispering rustle of wings overhead, and then, fluttering slowly, softly down, came hundreds and thousands of little white fluffy feathers. Who acts: wings. A sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 8, sentence 117

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And the next moment there was a soft whispering rustle of wings overhead, and then, fluttering slowly, softly down, came hundreds and thousands of little white fluffy feathers.

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**Who acts:** wings · **What happens:** flutter, come, rustle · **To what, where:** hundreds

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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 (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:pg23661:8:117
# text = And the next moment there was a soft whispering rustle of wings overhead, and then, fluttering slowly, softly down, came hundreds and thousands of little white fluffy feathers.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	whispering	whispering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	rustle	rustle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
13	overhead	overhead	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	fluttering	flutter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
19	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	down	down	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	hundreds	hundred	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
30	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	fluffy	fluffy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **flutter** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  | then | down, slowly *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past |  | hundreds and thousands of little white fluffy feathers |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hundred=Theme |
| 3 | **rustle** |  | wings |  |  |  |  |  | nom rustle «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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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