---
title: So he wished himself a boy again, and in the twinkling of an eye his… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So he wished himself a boy again, and in the twinkling of an eye his tail disappeared and his head shrank, and the long thick mane became short and curly. Who acts: lion, tail, head, long thick mane. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, with its depende
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So he wished himself a boy again, and in the twinkling of an eye his tail disappeared and his head shrank, and the long thick mane became short and curly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** lion, tail, head, long thick mane · **What happens:** wish, disappear, shrink, become · **To what, where:** lion, twinkling

<!-- .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 (lion, tail, head, long thick mane), 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:pg3282:18:7
# text = So he wished himself a boy again, and in the twinkling of an eye his tail disappeared and his head shrank, and the long thick mane became short and curly.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	shrank	shrink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
27	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	mane	mane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
30	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	curly	curly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | past | lion | lion |  |  | again |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **disappear** | past | lion's tail |  |  | the twinkling of a eye |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **shrink** | past | lion's head |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **become** | past | the long thick mane |  |  |  |  | short *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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:** «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.

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