---
title: 'Nothing but to build a palace of ice wherein fires can burn that sh… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Nothing but to build a palace of ice wherein fires can burn that shall keep it so warm that the most delicate singing-birds can live in it!' Who acts: Nothing, fires, delicate singing birds. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 14, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'Nothing but to build a palace of ice wherein fires can burn that shall keep it so warm that the most delicate singing-birds can live in it!'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Nothing, fires, delicate singing birds · **What happens:** build, burn, keep, live · **To what, where:** palace, that

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing, fires, delicate singing birds), 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:pg3027:14:31
# text = 'Nothing but to build a palace of ice wherein fires can burn that shall keep it so warm that the most delicate singing-birds can live in it!'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	16	nsubj	_	_
3	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	wherein	wherein	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	fires	fire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	burn	burn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	obj	_	_
15	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
22	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	23	advmod	_	_
23	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
24	singing	singing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **build** | to-infinitive | Nothing *not said here* | a palace of ice |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset palace=Product |
| 2 | **burn** | can | fires | that |  |  |  | wherein *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 3 | **keep** | shall | Nothing | palace |  |  |  | warm *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **live** | can | the delicate singing birds |  |  | palace |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in it=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:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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