---
title: Then he knelt by the side of the fire and blew at it for a long whil… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he knelt by the side of the fire and blew at it for a long while, till slowly the feeble red glow became a little stronger and the edges of the bark showed signs of curling up. Who acts: Thuggai, feeble red glow, edges, signs. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/17/85/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he knelt by the side of the fire and blew at it for a long while, till slowly the feeble red glow became a little stronger and the edges of the bark showed signs of curling up.

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**Who acts:** Thuggai, feeble red glow, edges, signs · **What happens:** kneel, blow, become, show, curl up · **To what, where:** fire, signs

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Thuggai, feeble red glow, edges, signs), 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:pg3454:17:85
# text = Then he knelt by the side of the fire and blew at it for a long while, till slowly the feeble red glow became a little stronger and the edges of the bark showed signs of curling up.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knelt	kneel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
20	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
22	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
23	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	glow	glow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	obl	_	_
28	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	xcomp	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	edges	edge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nsubj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
35	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
36	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	_
37	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	38	mark	_	_
38	curling	curl	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	36	acl	_	_
39	up	up	ADP	RP	_	38	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kneel** | past | Thuggai |  |  |  | then | by the side of the fire | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by side=Location |
| 2 | **blow** | past | Thuggai *not said here* |  |  | fire | while |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **become** | past | the feeble red glow |  |  |  |  | slowly, strong *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **show** | past | the edges of the bark | signs |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent sign=Recipient |
| 5 | **curl up** | gerund | signs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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