---
title: He was as red as fire, and as hot to touch, and he always sat on the… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was as red as fire, and as hot to touch, and he always sat on the hearth quite close to the fire, and complained of the cold; if his sister were in the room he almost crept into the flames, while the girl on her part always complained of the great heat if her brother were anywhere near. Who acts:
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son(25), sentence 22

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He was as red as fire, and as hot to touch, and he always sat on the hearth quite close to the fire, and complained of the cold; if his sister were in the room he almost crept into the flames, while the girl on her part always complained of the great heat if her brother were anywhere near.

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**Who acts:** boy, sister, brother · **What happens:** be, touch, sit, complain, creep · **To what, where:** hearth, room, flames, girl

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son(25). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, sister, brother), 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:pg640:36:22
# text = He was as red as fire, and as hot to touch, and he always sat on the hearth quite close to the fire, and complained of the cold; if his sister were in the room he almost crept into the flames, while the girl on her part always complained of the great heat if her brother were anywhere near.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	17	advmod	_	_
17	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	complained	complain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	cold	cold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
33	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
36	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	parataxis	_	_
43	into	into	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
47	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	54	mark	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	nsubj:pass	_	_
50	on	on	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nmod	_	_
53	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	54	advmod	_	_
54	complained	complain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	parataxis	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	58	det	_	_
57	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	58	amod	_	_
58	heat	heat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	_
59	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	63	mark	_	_
60	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	61	nmod:poss	_	_
61	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	63	nsubj	_	_
62	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	63	cop	_	_
63	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	54	advmod	_	_
64	near	near	ADV	RB	_	63	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | as fire; red *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sit** | past | boy |  |  | the hearth |  | always *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on hearth=Location |
| 5 | **complain** *speech: other* | past | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the cold | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | boy's sister |  |  | the room |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **creep** | past | boy |  |  | the flames |  | almost *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into flame=Destination |
| 8 | **complain** *speech: other* | participle · passive |  | the girl on girl's part |  |  |  | of the great heat; always *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | girl's brother |  |  |  |  | anywhere, near *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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