---
title: But the fire was getting low, and the light dim, and presently the l… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the fire was getting low, and the light dim, and presently the little boy stirred the coals with a stick to make them blaze; when out jumped a red-hot cinder, and where should it fall, but on the fairy child's tiny foot. Who acts: fire, little boy, coals, cinder. A sentence of «More English Fair
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 2, sentence 60

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But the fire was getting low, and the light dim, and presently the little boy stirred the coals with a stick to make them blaze; when out jumped a red-hot cinder, and where should it fall, but on the fairy child's tiny foot.

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**Who acts:** fire, little boy, coals, cinder · **What happens:** get, stir, make, blaze, jump, fall · **To what, where:** coals, hot cinder, tiny foot

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, 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 (fire, little boy, coals, cinder), 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:pg14241:16:60
# text = But the fire was getting low, and the light dim, and presently the little boy stirred the coals with a stick to make them blaze; when out jumped a red-hot cinder, and where should it fall, but on the fairy child's tiny foot.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	dim	dim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	stirred	stir	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	coals	coal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	blaze	blaze	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	_
31	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
33	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	cinder	cinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	42	advmod	_	_
40	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
41	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
44	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
45	on	on	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	fairy	fairy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	's	's	PART	POS	_	48	case	_	_
50	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past · progressive | the fire |  |  |  |  | low *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **stir** | past | the little boy | the coals |  |  |  | with a stick; presently *property* | vn shake-22.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent coal=Patient with stick=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | the little boy *not said here* | coals *= coal* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **blaze** | infinitive | coals *= coal* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **jump** | past | the fire *not said here* | a hot cinder |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cinder=Trajectory |
| 6 | **fall** | should | cinder |  |  | the fairy child's tiny foot |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on foot=Location |

<!-- .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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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