---
title: His couch is as downy as a couch can be, For he sleeps on the feathe… — Legends of the Northwest · tree and pragmatics
description: His couch is as downy as a couch can be, For he sleeps on the feathers of the green fir-tree. Who acts: couch, Merry. A sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5, sentence 64

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His couch is as downy as a couch can be, For he sleeps on the feathers of the green fir-tree.

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**Who acts:** couch, Merry · **What happens:** be, sleep · **To what, where:** feathers

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This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (couch, Merry), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg8122:12:65
# text = His couch is as downy as a couch can be, For he sleeps on the feathers of the green fir-tree.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	couch	couch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	downy	downy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	couch	couch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	sleeps	sleep	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	feathers	feather	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
20	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
21	fir	fir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Merry's couch |  |  |  |  | downy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sleep** | present | Merry |  |  | the feathers of the green fir tree |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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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