---
title: “Take a single hair from one of my wings,” said he, “and if you are… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Take a single hair from one of my wings,” said he, “and if you are in danger just wish yourself a bee and you will become one. Who acts: bee, you. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/35/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/) / 35

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Take a single hair from one of my wings,” said he, “and if you are in danger just wish yourself a bee and you will become one.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bee, you · **What happens:** take, say, be, wish, become · **To what, where:** single hair, danger, bee, yourself, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bee, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3282:18:35
# text = “Take a single hair from one of my wings,” said he, “and if you are in danger just wish yourself a bee and you will become one.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	advcl	_	_
23	just	just	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
25	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	iobj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	bee	bee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | a single hair |  |  |  | from one of my wings | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent hair=Theme from one=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | bee |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  | danger |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **wish** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | a bee | yourself |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **become** *in a quote* | future | you | one |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Patient one=Result |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/34/)
- next →: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/36/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/18/)