---
title: Yo, was the witch laughing or crying? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer… · tree and pragmatics
description: Yo, was the witch laughing or crying? Test 11 · ★ of lesson 879 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 90: the mermaid sneaks off to the sea witch and pays a terrible price» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each o
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/879-pg27200-part90/t11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/879-pg27200-part90/) / t11

# Test 11 · ★ · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 90: the m…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yo, was the witch laughing or crying?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** witch · **What happens:** be, laugh, cry · **To what, where:** witch

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 879 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 90: the mermaid sneaks off to the sea witch and pays a terrible price» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/879-pg27200-part90/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:879-pg27200-part90:t11:1
# text = Yo, was the witch laughing or crying?
1	Yo	yo	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the witch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **laugh** | gerund | the witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | the witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Screaming at the mermaid's sorrow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:879-pg27200-part90:t11:o1:1
# text = Screaming at the mermaid's sorrow
1	Screaming	scream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scream** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  | the mermaid's sorrow |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at sorrow=Location |
| 2 | **sorrow** |  | the mermaid |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Laughing

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:879-pg27200-part90:t11:o2:1
# text = Laughing
1	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Laughing so loud the toad fell over

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:879-pg27200-part90:t11:o3:1
# text = Laughing so loud the toad fell over
1	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	csubj	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	loud	loud	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	over	over	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | gerund |  | the toad |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fall over** | past | Laughing |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Crying so hard her eyes ran

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:879-pg27200-part90:t11:o4:1
# text = Crying so hard her eyes ran
1	Crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	csubj	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	1	advmod	_	_
4	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
6	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund |  | her eyes |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Topic |
| 2 | **run** | past | Crying |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/879-pg27200-part90/t10/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer…, test 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/879-pg27200-part90/t12/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 90: the mermaid sneaks off to the sea witch and pays a terrible price](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/879-pg27200-part90/)