---
title: Their hair was as white as the snow, and their flesh of an icy blue,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Their hair was as white as the snow, and their flesh of an icy blue, and they mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream, and their frozen breath hung round them like a cloud. Who acts: hair, flesh, things, frozen breath. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dep
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their hair was as white as the snow, and their flesh of an icy blue, and they mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream, and their frozen breath hung round them like a cloud.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hair, flesh, things, frozen breath · **What happens:** be, mumble, nod, freeze, hang

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hair, flesh, things, frozen breath), 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:pg503:27:50
# text = Their hair was as white as the snow, and their flesh of an icy blue, and they mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream, and their frozen breath hung round them like a cloud.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	flesh	flesh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	icy	icy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	mumbled	mumble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	nodded	nod	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	dream	dream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
31	frozen	freeze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	amod	_	_
32	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	_
34	round	round	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	_
36	like	like	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	cloud	cloud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | things's hair |  |  |  |  | as the snow; white *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | things's flesh |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **mumble** *speech: other* | past | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **nod** | past | things *= thing* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in a kind of dream | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in kind=Theme |
| 5 | **freeze** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **hang** | participle | things's frozen breath |  |  |  |  | round things *= thing*; like a cloud | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme round they=Destination |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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