---
title: “Can there be a fire?” he said to himself; “the sun never came in at… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Can there be a fire?” he said to himself; “the sun never came in at this window before. Who acts: fire, sun. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 22, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/22/67/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 22, sentence 67

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“Can there be a fire?” he said to himself; “the sun never came in at this window before.

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**Who acts:** fire, sun · **What happens:** be, say, not come in · **To what, where:** fire, window · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 22. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fire, sun), 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:pg3282:22:67
# text = “Can there be a fire?” he said to himself; “the sun never came in at this window before.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	before	before	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **can** *in a quote* | can | a fire |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | fire |  | fire |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **come in** *in a quote* | past | the sun |  |  | this window |  | before *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at window=Location |

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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:** «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.

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