The Book of Dragons, Opening, part 9, sentence 7

He flew off very crookedly, dodging the flames, and presently he came back, and there were so many moths with him that it was as if a live sheet of white wingedness were suddenly drawn between the children and the stars.

Who acts: moth, many moths · What happens: fly off, dodge, come back, be, draw · To what, where: flames, Sealskin

This is a sentence of «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (moth, many moths), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 flew	nsubj
2	flew	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	off	off	ADP	_	2 flew	compound:prt
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 crookedly	advmod
5	crookedly	crookedly	ADV	_	2 flew	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 dodging	punct
7	dodging	dodge	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 flew	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 flames	det
9	flames	flame	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 dodging	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 came	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 came	cc
12	presently	presently	ADV	_	14 came	advmod
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 came	nsubj
14	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 flew	conj
15	back	back	ADV	_	14 came	advmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 were	punct
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 were	cc
18	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	19 were	expl
19	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 came	conj
20	so	so	ADV	_	21 many	advmod
21	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 moths	amod
22	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 were	nsubj
23	with	with	ADP	_	24 him	case
24	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 moths	nmod
25	that	that	SCONJ	_	38 drawn	mark
26	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 drawn	nsubj:pass
27	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 drawn	aux:pass
28	as	as	SCONJ	_	38 drawn	mark
29	if	if	SCONJ	_	38 drawn	mark
30	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	32 sheet	det
31	live	live	ADJ	Degree=Pos	32 sheet	amod
32	sheet	sheet	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 drawn	nsubj:pass
33	of	of	ADP	_	35 wingedness	case
34	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	35 wingedness	amod
35	wingedness	wingedness	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 sheet	nmod
36	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 drawn	aux:pass
37	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	_	38 drawn	advmod
38	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 moths	acl
39	between	between	ADP	_	41 children	case
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	41 children	det
41	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	38 drawn	obl
42	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 stars	cc
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 stars	det
44	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	41 children	conj
45	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 flew	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	fly off	past	moth			crookedly property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	dodge	gerund	moth not said here	the flames			vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent flame=Location
3	come back	past	moth			presently property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	be	past	many moths with Jane		there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	draw a condition, not said to happen	past · passive	many moths with Jane not said here	Sealskin		between the children and the stars; suddenly property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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: «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit, Project Gutenberg book 23661 (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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