--- title: Scarcely had the Dragon breathed its last when the air was darkened… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics description: Scarcely had the Dragon breathed its last when the air was darkened by the wings of some great creature passing overhead, and, looking up, he observed, flying just above him, the forms of the two parent Gryphons now returning to their nest. Who acts: Scarcely, Dragon, wings, great creature. A senten --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/65/) [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/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [The Story of the Boy With the Deformed…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/) / 65 # Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head., sentence 65 Scarcely had the Dragon breathed its last when the air was darkened by the wings of some great creature passing overhead, and, looking up, he observed, flying just above him, the forms of the two parent Gryphons now returning to their nest. **Who acts:** Scarcely, Dragon, wings, great creature · **What happens:** have, breathe, darken, pass, look up, observe · **To what, where:** last, air, two parent Gryphons This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, Dragon, wings, great creature), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg75000:16:65 # text = Scarcely had the Dragon breathed its last when the air was darkened by the wings of some great creature passing overhead, and, looking up, he observed, flying just above him, the forms of the two parent Gryphons now returning to their nest. 1 Scarcely Scarcely PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 2 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 Dragon Dragon PROPN NNP Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 5 breathed breathe VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 ccomp _ _ 6 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 last last ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 obj _ _ 8 when when SCONJ WRB _ 12 mark _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 air air NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nsubj:pass _ _ 11 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 aux:pass _ _ 12 darkened darken VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 5 advcl _ _ 13 by by ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 wings wing NOUN NNS Number=Plur 12 obl _ _ 16 of of ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 17 some some DET DT PronType=Ind 19 det _ _ 18 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 19 amod _ _ 19 creature creature NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 nmod _ _ 20 passing pass VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 19 acl _ _ 21 overhead overhead ADV RB _ 20 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 22 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 25 looking look VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 29 advcl _ _ 26 up up ADP RP _ 25 compound:prt _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 28 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 29 observed observe VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 31 flying fly VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 29 xcomp _ _ 32 just just ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ _ 33 above above ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 34 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 36 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 37 forms form NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 conj _ _ 38 of of ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 39 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 40 two two NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 42 nummod _ _ 41 parent parent NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 compound _ _ 42 Gryphons gryphon NOUN NNS Number=Plur 37 nmod _ _ 43 now now ADV RB PronType=Dem 31 advmod _ _ 44 returning return VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 31 conj _ _ 45 to to ADP IN _ 47 case _ _ 46 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 47 nmod:poss _ _ 47 nest nest NOUN NN Number=Sing 44 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 48 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely | | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **breathe** | past | the Dragon | Dragon's last | | | | | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent last=Theme | | 3 | **darken** | past · passive | the wings of some great creature | the air | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient | | 4 | **pass** | gerund | some great creature *not said here* | | | | | overhead *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **look up** | gerund | Scarcely *not said here* | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 6 | **observe** | past | Scarcely | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 7 | **fly** | gerund | Scarcely *not said here* | | | | now | above Scarcely | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme above he=Location | | 8 | **return** | gerund | Scarcely *not said here* | | | | | to Gryphons's nest *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to nest=Result | | 9 | **form** | | | the two parent Gryphons | | | | | nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient | 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. **Text:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/64/) - next →: [sentence 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/66/) - ↑ back to [The Story of the Boy With the Deformed Head.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/16/)