---
title: Pluming his gorgeous feathers, he ruffled his neck and flapped his s… — Old Indian Legends · tree and pragmatics
description: Pluming his gorgeous feathers, he ruffled his neck and flapped his strong wings together. Who acts: eagle. A sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound, 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/pg338/8/29/)

<!-- 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/) / [Old Indian Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/) / [The Tree-bound](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/) / 29

# Old Indian Legends, The Tree-bound, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Pluming his gorgeous feathers, he ruffled his neck and flapped his strong wings together.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** eagle · **What happens:** plume, ruffle, flap · **To what, where:** gorgeous feathers, neck, strong wings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, The Tree-bound. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eagle), 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:pg338:8:29
# text = Pluming his gorgeous feathers, he ruffled his neck and flapped his strong wings together.
1	Pluming	plume	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
3	gorgeous	gorgeous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ruffled	ruffle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	flapped	flap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	together	together	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plume** | gerund | eagle *not said here* | eagle's gorgeous feathers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ruffle** | past | eagle | eagle's neck |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus neck=Experiencer |
| 3 | **flap** | past | eagle *not said here* | eagle's strong wings |  |  |  | together *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=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:** «Old Indian Legends» by Zitkala-Sa, Project Gutenberg book 338 (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 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/28/)
- next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/30/)
- ↑ back to [The Tree-bound](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg338/8/)