---
title: The mole took a piece of rotten wood in his mouth, for that glows li… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The mole took a piece of rotten wood in his mouth, for that glows like fire in the dark, and went in front, lighting them through the long dark passage. Who acts: mole, that. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 153

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The mole took a piece of rotten wood in his mouth, for that glows like fire in the dark, and went in front, lighting them through the long dark passage.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mole, that · **What happens:** take, glow, go, light · **To what, where:** piece, mouth, dark, front, pieces, long dark passage

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mole, that), 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:pg640:47:153
# text = The mole took a piece of rotten wood in his mouth, for that glows like fire in the dark, and went in front, lighting them through the long dark passage.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mole	mole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	rotten	rotten	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	nsubj	_	_
15	glows	glow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
16	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	lighting	light	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	through	through	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the mole | a piece of rotten wood |  | mole's mouth |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent piece=Value in mouth=Location |
| 2 | **glow** | present | that |  |  | the dark |  | like fire | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in dark=Location |
| 3 | **go** | past | the mole *not said here* |  |  | front |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in front=Location |
| 4 | **light** | gerund | the mole *not said here* | pieces *= piece* |  | the long dark passage |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Product |

<!-- .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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