---
title: In one of her wild moods she bit off the head of the black cock, whi… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: In one of her wild moods she bit off the head of the black cock, which the priest was about to slay for the sacrifice. Who acts: child, black cock. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3, sentence 18

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In one of her wild moods she bit off the head of the black cock, which the priest was about to slay for the sacrifice.

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**Who acts:** child, black cock · **What happens:** bite off, be, slay · **To what, where:** head

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child, black cock), 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:pg27200:85:18
# text = In one of her wild moods she bit off the head of the black cock, which the priest was about to slay for the sacrifice.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	moods	mood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	bit	bite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	priest	priest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	parataxis	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bite off** | past | child | the head of the black cock |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | the black cock |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **slay** | to-infinitive | the black cock *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the sacrifice | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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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