---
title: Their golden wings were folded and their brass claws were crossed, a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Their golden wings were folded and their brass claws were crossed, and two of them slept with their hideous heads beneath their wings like birds, and the serpents in their hair writhed out from under the feathers of gold. Who acts: two, serpents. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, T
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their golden wings were folded and their brass claws were crossed, and two of them slept with their hideous heads beneath their wings like birds, and the serpents in their hair writhed out from under the feathers of gold.

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**Who acts:** two, serpents · **What happens:** fold, cross, sleep, writhe out · **To what, where:** golden wings, brass claws

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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 (two, serpents), 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:pg503:27:81
# text = Their golden wings were folded and their brass claws were crossed, and two of them slept with their hideous heads beneath their wings like birds, and the serpents in their hair writhed out from under the feathers of gold.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	folded	fold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	crossed	cross	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	_
17	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hideous	hideous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
22	beneath	beneath	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
25	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
34	writhed	writhe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
35	out	out	ADP	RP	_	34	compound:prt	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	under	under	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fold** | past · passive |  | rivers's golden wings |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **cross** | past · passive |  | rivers's brass claws |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **sleep** | past | two of rivers |  |  |  |  | with rivers's hideous heads beneath rivers's wings like birds | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **writhe out** | participle | the serpents in wings's hair |  |  |  |  | from the feathers of gold | vn body\_internal\_states-40.6 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer from feather=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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