---
title: ‘This is a pretty kind of tinder-box, if I can get whatever I want l… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘This is a pretty kind of tinder-box, if I can get whatever I want like this. Who acts: This, I. 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 88

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‘This is a pretty kind of tinder-box, if I can get whatever I want like this.

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**Who acts:** This, I · **What happens:** be, get, want · **To what, where:** pretty kind, whatever

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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 (This, I), 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:pg640:46:88
# text = ‘This is a pretty kind of tinder-box, if I can get whatever I want like this.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	tinder	tinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
16	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	obj	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | This | a pretty kind |  |  |  | of tinder box | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **want** | present | I | whatever |  |  |  | like this | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot whatever=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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