---
title: In the twinkling of an eye the four hairs changed into four tailors,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the twinkling of an eye the four hairs changed into four tailors, of whom the first carried a cabbage, the second a pair of scissors, the third a needle, and the fourth an iron. Who acts: four hairs, first, third, fourth. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34, sentence 79

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In the twinkling of an eye the four hairs changed into four tailors, of whom the first carried a cabbage, the second a pair of scissors, the third a needle, and the fourth an iron.

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**Who acts:** four hairs, first, third, fourth · **What happens:** change, carry, needle, iron · **To what, where:** twinkling, cabbage

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (four hairs, first, third, fourth), 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:pg3454:34:79
# text = In the twinkling of an eye the four hairs changed into four tailors, of whom the first carried a cabbage, the second a pair of scissors, the third a needle, and the fourth an iron.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	hairs	hair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	changed	change	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	tailors	tailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	first	first	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	19	nsubj	_	_
19	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cabbage	cabbage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	26	amod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	scissors	scissors	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	33	nsubj	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	needle	needle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	fourth	fourth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
38	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **change** | past | the four hairs |  |  | the twinkling of a eye |  | into four tailors *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into tailor=Result |
| 2 | **carry** | past | the first | a cabbage and a second pair of scissors and a needle |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent cabbage=Theme of whom=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **needle** |  | the third |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **iron** |  | the fourth |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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