---
title: The dragon writhed on itself, and belched forth an evil vapour, and… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dragon writhed on itself, and belched forth an evil vapour, and beat the ground with its head till the earth quaked. Who acts: dragon, earth. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, 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/pg3282/4/74/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/) / 74

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dragon writhed on itself, and belched forth an evil vapour, and beat the ground with its head till the earth quaked.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dragon, earth · **What happens:** writhe, belch, beat, quake · **To what, where:** dragon, evil vapour, ground

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon, earth), 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:pg3282:4:74
# text = The dragon writhed on itself, and belched forth an evil vapour, and beat the ground with its head till the earth quaked.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
3	writhed	writhe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	belched	belch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
9	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	vapour	vapour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	quaked	quake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **writhe** | participle |  | the dragon *not said here* |  |  |  | on dragon | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on itself=Location |
| 2 | **belch** | participle | the dragon *not said here* | a evil vapour |  |  |  |  | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **beat** | past | the dragon | the ground |  |  |  | with dragon's head | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent ground=Patient with head=Instrument |
| 4 | **quake** | past | the earth |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/73/)
- next →: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/75/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/4/)