---
title: The tail-feathers of the fowl were very short, and it winked with bo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The tail-feathers of the fowl were very short, and it winked with both its eyes, and looked very cunning, as it said "Cluck, cluck." Who acts: tail feathers, fowl. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Old Man Does Is Always Right, with its dependency tre
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, What the Old Man Does Is Always Right, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The tail-feathers of the fowl were very short, and it winked with both its eyes, and looked very cunning, as it said "Cluck, cluck."

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**Who acts:** tail feathers, fowl · **What happens:** be, wink, look, say, cluck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, What the Old Man Does Is Always Right. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tail feathers, fowl), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg27200:132:51
# text = The tail-feathers of the fowl were very short, and it winked with both its eyes, and looked very cunning, as it said "Cluck, cluck."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fowl	fowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	winked	wink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc:preconj	_	_
17	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
22	very	very	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	Cluck	cluck	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	cluck	cluck	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the tail feathers of the fowl |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wink** | past | fowl |  |  |  |  | with fowl's eyes | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **look** | past |  |  |  |  |  | cunning *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | fowl |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **cluck** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **cluck** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=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.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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