---
title: In a moment he had a slender body like a bird, covered with shining… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a moment he had a slender body like a bird, covered with shining blue feathers, his beak was like ivory, his eyes were bright as stars, and a crown of white feathers adorned his head. Who acts: face, beak, eyes, crown. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 2, wi
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Blue Bird, part 2, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a moment he had a slender body like a bird, covered with shining blue feathers, his beak was like ivory, his eyes were bright as stars, and a crown of white feathers adorned his head.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** face, beak, eyes, crown · **What happens:** have, cover, shine, be, adorn, crown · **To what, where:** slender body, bird, blue feathers, head, white feathers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Bird, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, beak, eyes, crown), 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:pg7277:3:28
# text = In a moment he had a slender body like a bird, covered with shining blue feathers, his beak was like ivory, his eyes were bright as stars, and a crown of white feathers adorned his head.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	slender	slender	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	like	like	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
14	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
15	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
16	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	beak	beak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	ivory	ivory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	_
29	as	as	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	crown	crown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	_
38	adorned	adorn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | face | a slender body |  |  | moment | like a bird | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Patient |
| 2 | **cover** | participle |  | a bird *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **shine** | gerund |  | blue feathers |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent feather=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | face's beak |  |  |  |  | like ivory | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | face's eyes |  |  |  |  | as stars; bright *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **adorn** | past | a crown of white feathers | face's head |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme head=Destination |
| 7 | **crown** |  |  | white feathers |  |  |  |  | nom crown «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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