---
title: The Mother-Toad might have told this and that, if she had chosen, bu… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The Mother-Toad might have told this and that, if she had chosen, but she never answered when they asked her anything, and so they left off asking. Who acts: Mother, Frogs. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Toad, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/194/11/)

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Toad, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Mother-Toad might have told this and that, if she had chosen, but she never answered when they asked her anything, and so they left off asking.

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**Who acts:** Mother, Frogs · **What happens:** tell, choose, not answer, ask, leave off · **To what, where:** Mother, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Toad. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mother, Frogs), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg27200:194:11
# text = The Mother-Toad might have told this and that, if she had chosen, but she never answered when they asked her anything, and so they left off asking.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	Toad	Toad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
5	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	nsubj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
31	off	off	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	asking	ask	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | might · perfect · passive |  | the Mother |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | Mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Frogs *= frog* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent anything=Recipient |
| 5 | **leave off** | past | Frogs *= frog* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **ask** *speech: ask* | gerund | Frogs *= frog* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «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.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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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