---
title: Its short, strong beak was open, ready to bite, and on its red throa… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Its short, strong beak was open, ready to bite, and on its red throat were short feathers, like stubble. Who acts: short strong beak, red throat. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VIII. What Fresh News the Parlor-cat Had to Tell, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, VIII. What Fresh News the Parlor-cat Had to Tell, sentence 3

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Its short, strong beak was open, ready to bite, and on its red throat were short feathers, like stubble.

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**Who acts:** short strong beak, red throat · **What happens:** be, bite · **To what, where:** short feathers

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, VIII. What Fresh News the Parlor-cat Had to Tell. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (short strong beak, red throat), 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:pg27200:59:3
# text = Its short, strong beak was open, ready to bite, and on its red throat were short feathers, like stubble.
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
2	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	stubble	stubble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | pair's short strong beak |  |  |  |  | open *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | pair's short strong beak *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bite** | to-infinitive | pair's short strong beak *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | pair's red throat |  |  | short feathers and stubble |  |  | tree rules |

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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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