---
title: Behind him the dust cloud moved to the sound of the thunder of hoofs… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Behind him the dust cloud moved to the sound of the thunder of hoofs, whilst here and there flashed the glitter of steel. Who acts: dust cloud, hoofs. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, 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/pg3454/16/37/)

<!-- 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 Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/) / 37

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Behind him the dust cloud moved to the sound of the thunder of hoofs, whilst here and there flashed the glitter of steel.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dust cloud, hoofs · **What happens:** move, flash, thunder · **To what, where:** sound, glitter

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dust cloud, hoofs), 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:pg3454:16:37
# text = Behind him the dust cloud moved to the sound of the thunder of hoofs, whilst here and there flashed the glitter of steel.
1	Behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	moved	move	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	parataxis	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
20	flashed	flash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	glitter	glitter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	steel	steel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **move** | past | the dust cloud |  |  | the sound of the thunder of hoofs |  | behind king | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme behind he=Source to sound=Trajectory |
| 2 | **flash** | past | the dust cloud *not said here* | the glitter of steel |  | there |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent glitter=Theme |
| 3 | **thunder** |  | hoofs |  |  |  |  |  | nom thunder «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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/38/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/16/)