---
title: It was certainly not very pleasant to be burning; but when the whole… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was certainly not very pleasant to be burning; but when the whole was wrapped in flames, the flames mounted up into the air, higher than the flax had ever been able to raise its little blue flower, and they glistened as the white linen never could have glistened. Who acts: bundle, flax, flowers. 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/34/77/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Flax](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/34/) / 77

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flax, sentence 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was certainly not very pleasant to be burning; but when the whole was wrapped in flames, the flames mounted up into the air, higher than the flax had ever been able to raise its little blue flower, and they glistened as the white linen never could have glistened.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bundle, flax, flowers · **What happens:** not be, burn, wrap, mount up, be, raise · **To what, where:** whole, flames, air, little blue flower

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flax. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bundle, flax, flowers), 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:pg27200:34:77
# text = It was certainly not very pleasant to be burning; but when the whole was wrapped in flames, the flames mounted up into the air, higher than the flax had ever been able to raise its little blue flower, and they glistened as the white linen never could have glistened.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	pleasant	pleasant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
9	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
22	mounted	mount	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	conj	_	_
29	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	flax	flax	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
33	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	35	advmod	_	_
34	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	cop	_	_
35	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	advcl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	raise	raise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
39	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
40	blue	blue	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	glistened	glisten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
46	as	as	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
48	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	linen	linen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
50	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	53	advmod	_	_
51	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	_
52	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	aux	_	_
53	glistened	glisten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	45	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | bundle |  |  |  |  | certainly, pleasant *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **burn** | to-infinitive · progressive | bundle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **wrap** | past · passive |  | the whole |  | flames and the flames |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in flame=Destination |
| 4 | **mount up** | participle |  | the flames *not said here* |  | the air |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into air=Location |
| 5 | **be** |  | bundle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past · perfect | the flax |  |  |  | ever | able *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **raise** | to-infinitive | the flax *not said here* | bundle's little blue flower |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flower=Theme |
| 8 | **glisten** | past | flowers *= flower* |  |  |  |  | as the white linen | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **not** **glisten** | could · perfect | flowers *= flower* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/34/76/)
- next →: [sentence 78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/34/78/)
- ↑ back to [The Flax](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/34/)