---
title: The matches now lay between a tinder-box and an old iron saucepan, a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The matches now lay between a tinder-box and an old iron saucepan, and were talking about their youthful days. ' Who acts: matches. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Flying Trunk, sentence 37

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The matches now lay between a tinder-box and an old iron saucepan, and were talking about their youthful days. '

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**Who acts:** matches · **What happens:** lie, talk · **To what, where:** tinder box

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Flying Trunk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (matches), 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:pg27200:35:37
# text = The matches now lay between a tinder-box and an old iron saucepan, and were talking about their youthful days. '
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	matches	match	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	between	between	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	tinder	tinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	saucepan	saucepan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	youthful	youthful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | the matches |  |  | a tinder box and a old iron saucepan | now |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent between box=Location |
| 2 | **talk** | past · progressive | the matches *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn talk-37.5 «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:** «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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