---
title: Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. Who acts: burning match, girl. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match-seller, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/74/16/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match-seller, sentence 16

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Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers.

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**Who acts:** burning match, girl · **What happens:** burn, be, draw, strike, warm · **To what, where:** roof, bundle, fingers

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Match-seller. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (burning match, girl), 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:pg27200:74:16
# text = Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers.
1	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	10	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
3	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	amod	_	_
6	match	match	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	against	against	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	just	just	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	warm	warm	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | might | a burning match |  |  |  |  | good, perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **draw** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | girl | roof |  | the bundle |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent it=Theme from bundle=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **strike** | infinitive | girl *not said here* | roof |  |  |  | against the wall | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent it=Instrument against wall=Patient |
| 5 | **warm** | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* | girl's fingers |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent finger=Patient |

<!-- .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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