---
title: The dragon picked it up as if it had been a feather, and, after whir… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dragon picked it up as if it had been a feather, and, after whirling it round his head, flung it lightly three miles away, telling Stan to beat that if he could. Who acts: dragon, club. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dragon picked it up as if it had been a feather, and, after whirling it round his head, flung it lightly three miles away, telling Stan to beat that if he could.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dragon, club · **What happens:** pick up, be, whirl, fling, tell, beat · **To what, where:** club, head, Stan · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dragon, club), 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:pg641:13:91
# text = The dragon picked it up as if it had been a feather, and, after whirling it round his head, flung it lightly three miles away, telling Stan to beat that if he could.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	picked	pick	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	12	case	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	fixed	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	whirling	whirl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	round	round	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
23	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	lightly	lightly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
28	away	away	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
31	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	iobj	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
34	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pick up** | past | the dragon | club |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past · perfect | club |  |  |  |  | as a feather | tree rules |
| 3 | **whirl** | gerund |  | club |  | Stan's head |  |  | vn coil-9.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme round head=Destination |
| 4 | **fling** | past | the dragon *not said here* | club |  |  |  | away, lightly *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the dragon *not said here* |  | Stan |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent stan=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **beat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the dragon *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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