---
title: The little soldier made straight for the fireplace, seized the tongs… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The little soldier made straight for the fireplace, seized the tongs, and was stooping down to look for a nice red hot coal with which to light his pipe, when clic! something went, like a spring giving way, and in the very midst of the flames an enormous serpent reared itself up close to his face. W
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little soldier made straight for the fireplace, seized the tongs, and was stooping down to look for a nice red hot coal with which to light his pipe, when clic! something went, like a spring giving way, and in the very midst of the flames an enormous serpent reared itself up close to his face.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little soldier, something, spring, enormous serpent · **What happens:** make, seize, stoop down, look, light, go · **To what, where:** little soldier, tongs, pipe, way, serpent, midst

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little soldier, something, spring, enormous serpent), 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:pg7277:22:17
# text = The little soldier made straight for the fireplace, seized the tongs, and was stooping down to look for a nice red hot coal with which to light his pipe, when clic! something went, like a spring giving way, and in the very midst of the flames an enormous serpent reared itself up close to his face.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
4	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	fireplace	fireplace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tongs	tong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	stooping	stoop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
17	down	down	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	advcl	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
22	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
23	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	obl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	light	light	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
34	clic	clic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
36	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	37	nsubj	_	_
37	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	like	like	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
42	giving	give	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	41	acl	_	_
43	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
46	in	in	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
48	very	very	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
49	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nmod	_	_
53	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
54	enormous	enormous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	serpent	serpent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nsubj	_	_
56	reared	rear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
57	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	56	obj	_	_
58	up	up	ADV	RB	_	59	advmod	_	_
59	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	56	advmod	_	_
60	to	to	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
61	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	62	nmod:poss	_	_
62	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | participle |  | the little soldier *not said here* |  |  |  | for the fireplace | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent for fireplace=Asset |
| 2 | **seize** | past | the little soldier | the tongs |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tong=Theme |
| 3 | **stoop down** | past · progressive | the little soldier *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **look** | to-infinitive | something *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a nice red hot coal | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for coal=Theme |
| 5 | **light** | to-infinitive | something *not said here* | soldier's pipe |  |  |  | with a nice red hot coal | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pipe=Product with which=Material |
| 6 | **go** | past | something |  |  |  | spring |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **give** | gerund | a spring *not said here* | way |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme |
| 8 | **rear** | past | a enormous serpent | serpent |  | the midst of the flames |  | close *property* | vn rear-26.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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