---
title: They are like wet wood," he would say, looking round to see what sor… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They are like wet wood," he would say, looking round to see what sort of people were present, "this evening; nothing fires them." Who acts: things, public, sort, nothing. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Cheerful Temper, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, A Cheerful Temper, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They are like wet wood," he would say, looking round to see what sort of people were present, "this evening; nothing fires them."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** things, public, sort, nothing · **What happens:** be, say, look round, see, fire · **To what, where:** sort, things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, A Cheerful Temper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (things, public, sort, nothing), 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:pg27200:16:31
# text = They are like wet wood," he would say, looking round to see what sort of people were present, "this evening; nothing fires them."
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	round	round	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
16	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	17	det	_	_
17	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	present	present	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	25	det	_	_
25	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
27	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	28	nsubj	_	_
28	fires	fire	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  | like wet wood | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | would | public |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **look round** *in a quote* | gerund | public *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **see** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | public *not said here* | what sort and this evening |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sort=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | past | what sort and this evening *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of people; present *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fire** | present | nothing | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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