---
title: The King could not refuse him this, and so he took out his tinder-bo… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The King could not refuse him this, and so he took out his tinder-box, and rubbed it once, twice, three times. Who acts: King, fulfilment. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Tinder-box, sentence 137

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The King could not refuse him this, and so he took out his tinder-box, and rubbed it once, twice, three times.

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**Who acts:** King, fulfilment · **What happens:** not refuse, take out, rub · **To what, where:** fulfilment, tinder box, box

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tinder-box. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, fulfilment), 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:pg640:46:137
# text = The King could not refuse him this, and so he took out his tinder-box, and rubbed it once, twice, three times.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	refuse	refuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
15	tinder	tinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	rubbed	rub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	twice	twice	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
26	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **refuse** | could | the King | fulfilment |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take out** | past | fulfilment | fulfilment's tinder box |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Theme |
| 3 | **rub** | past | fulfilment *not said here* | box |  |  | time | once, twice *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

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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 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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