---
title: “I wish that a spark of fire would fall on my net,” whispered he; an… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I wish that a spark of fire would fall on my net,” whispered he; and the next minute a great log fell forward into the midst of the tent, causing every one to spring backwards. Who acts: I, spark, next minute, fire. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11,
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/73/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/) / 73

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I wish that a spark of fire would fall on my net,” whispered he; and the next minute a great log fell forward into the midst of the tent, causing every one to spring backwards.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, spark, next minute, fire · **What happens:** wish, fall, whisper, cause, spark · **To what, where:** net, spark, midst, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, spark, next minute, fire), 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:pg3282:11:73
# text = “I wish that a spark of fire would fall on my net,” whispered he; and the next minute a great log fell forward into the midst of the tent, causing every one to spring backwards.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	spark	spark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	net	net	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
16	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	log	log	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
27	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	tent	tent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	causing	cause	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
36	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	37	det	_	_
37	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** *in a quote* | would | a spark of fire |  |  | my net |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on net=Location |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past |  | spark |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **fall** | past | the next minute |  |  |  |  | into the midst of the tent *result*; forward *property* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into midst=Result |
| 5 | **cause** | gerund | the next minute *not said here* | every one |  |  | spring | backwards *property* | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition one=Patient |
| 6 | **spark** *in a quote* |  | fire |  |  |  |  |  | nom spark «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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:** «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/72/)
- next →: [sentence 74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/74/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/11/)