---
title: The Toad thought it was a flower which had broken loose that it migh… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The Toad thought it was a flower which had broken loose that it might look about better in the world, which was quite a natural thing to do. Who acts: Toad, butterfly, world. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Toad, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Toad, sentence 43

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The Toad thought it was a flower which had broken loose that it might look about better in the world, which was quite a natural thing to do.

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**Who acts:** Toad, butterfly, world · **What happens:** think, be, break, look, do · **To what, where:** flower, natural thing · **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 (Toad, butterfly, world), 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:pg27200:194:43
# text = The Toad thought it was a flower which had broken loose that it might look about better in the world, which was quite a natural thing to do.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Toad	Toad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
16	about	about	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	xcomp	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
24	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	27	det:predet	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the Toad |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | butterfly | a flower |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **break** | past · perfect · passive |  | a flower |  |  |  | loose *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **look** | might | butterfly |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the world | quite natural thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive | butterfly *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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:** «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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