---
title: Before this candle, which I shall light, burns to the socket, you mu… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before this candle, which I shall light, burns to the socket, you must have made me a pair of boots reaching to my knees. Who acts: candle, boots. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 2

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Before this candle, which I shall light, burns to the socket, you must have made me a pair of boots reaching to my knees.

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**Who acts:** candle, boots · **What happens:** light, burn, make, reach · **To what, where:** candle, you

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (candle, boots), 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:pg7277:28:2
# text = Before this candle, which I shall light, burns to the socket, you must have made me a pair of boots reaching to my knees.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	candle	candle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	burns	burn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	socket	socket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	pair	pair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	boots	boot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
24	reaching	reach	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **light** | shall | this candle and light |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **burn** | present |  |  |  | this candle and light |  | to the socket | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before candle=Location |
| 3 | **make** | must · perfect · passive |  | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **reach** | gerund | boots *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to my knees | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 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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