---
title: A cheerful fire was burning in the kitchen, before which a roast was… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A cheerful fire was burning in the kitchen, before which a roast was being basted by unseen hands, and all kinds of vegetables and other dainty dishes were being prepared in like manner. Who acts: cheerful fire, unseen hands. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians, 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 17

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A cheerful fire was burning in the kitchen, before which a roast was being basted by unseen hands, and all kinds of vegetables and other dainty dishes were being prepared in like manner.

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**Who acts:** cheerful fire, unseen hands · **What happens:** burn, baste, prepare · **To what, where:** kitchen, roast, kinds, manner

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cheerful fire, unseen hands), 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:pg7277:55:17
# text = A cheerful fire was burning in the kitchen, before which a roast was being basted by unseen hands, and all kinds of vegetables and other dainty dishes were being prepared in like manner.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	roast	roast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	basted	baste	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	unseen	unseen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
22	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
23	kinds	kind	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	vegetables	vegetable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	dainty	dainty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	prepared	prepare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	like	like	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **burn** | past · progressive | a cheerful fire |  |  | the kitchen |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in kitchen=Location |
| 2 | **baste** | past · passive | unseen hands | a roast |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Theme before which=Destination |
| 3 | **prepare** | past · passive |  | all kinds of vegetables and other dainty dishes |  | manner |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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