---
title: Approaching them, she asked permission to take some of the burning c… — Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains · tree and pragmatics
description: Approaching them, she asked permission to take some of the burning coals to kindle her fire. Who acts: discovery, permission. A sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 10, sentence 34

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Approaching them, she asked permission to take some of the burning coals to kindle her fire.

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**Who acts:** discovery, permission · **What happens:** approach, ask, take, burn, kindle, fire · **To what, where:** men, permission, some, fire

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This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (discovery, permission), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74323:11:34
# text = Approaching them, she asked permission to take some of the burning coals to kindle her fire.
1	Approaching	approach	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	amod	_	_
13	coals	coal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	kindle	kindle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | gerund | discovery *not said here* | men *= man* |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | discovery | permission |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent permission=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | permission *not said here* | some of the burning coals |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=Theme |
| 4 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **kindle** | to-infinitive | permission *not said here* | discovery's fire |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition fire=Patient |
| 6 | **fire** |  | discovery |  |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: poss=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:** «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Project Gutenberg book 74323 (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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