---
title: He was not more than three feet high, his legs were quite crooked, a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was not more than three feet high, his legs were quite crooked, and all his body was covered with prickles like a hedgehog. Who acts: Prince, legs. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, sentence 88

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He was not more than three feet high, his legs were quite crooked, and all his body was covered with prickles like a hedgehog.

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**Who acts:** Prince, legs · **What happens:** not be, be, cover · **To what, where:** body

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, legs), 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:pg640:30:88
# text = He was not more than three feet high, his legs were quite crooked, and all his body was covered with prickles like a hedgehog.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	6	advmod	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	4	fixed	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	crooked	crooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	prickles	prickle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
24	like	like	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	hedgehog	hedgehog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | Prince |  |  |  |  | three feet *obl:unmarked*; high *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Prince's legs |  |  |  |  | crooked *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **cover** | past · passive |  | Prince's body |  |  |  | with prickles like a hedgehog | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with prickle=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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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