---
title: The man then turned into a hen, and began to search for the grain of… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man then turned into a hen, and began to search for the grain of barley, but this again changed itself to a pole-cat, and took off the hen’s head with a single snap. Who acts: man, this. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/24/43/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24, sentence 43

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The man then turned into a hen, and began to search for the grain of barley, but this again changed itself to a pole-cat, and took off the hen’s head with a single snap.

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**Who acts:** man, this · **What happens:** turn, begin, search, change, take off · **To what, where:** barley, head

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, this), 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:pg5615:24:43
# text = The man then turned into a hen, and began to search for the grain of barley, but this again changed itself to a pole-cat, and took off the hen’s head with a single snap.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	search	search	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	barley	barley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
21	again	again	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	changed	change	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	pole	pole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
32	off	off	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	hen	hen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’s	's	PART	POS	_	34	case	_	_
36	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
37	with	with	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	snap	snap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | the man |  |  |  | then | into a hen *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into hen=Result |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **search** | to-infinitive | the man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for the grain of barley | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for grain=Theme |
| 4 | **change** | past | this | barley |  |  | again | to a pole cat | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Patient |
| 5 | **take off** | past | the man *not said here* | the hen's head |  |  |  | with a single snap | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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