---
title: And then the witch laughed so loud and disgustingly, that the toad a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: And then the witch laughed so loud and disgustingly, that the toad and the snakes fell to the ground, and lay there wriggling about. " Who acts: witch, toad. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And then the witch laughed so loud and disgustingly, that the toad and the snakes fell to the ground, and lay there wriggling about. "

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**Who acts:** witch, toad · **What happens:** laugh, fall, lay, wriggle

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Little Mermaid, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (witch, toad), 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:pg27200:77:7
# text = And then the witch laughed so loud and disgustingly, that the toad and the snakes fell to the ground, and lay there wriggling about. "
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	loud	loud	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	disgustingly	disgustingly	ADV	RB	_	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
17	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
24	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
25	wriggling	wriggle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
26	about	about	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | the witch |  |  |  | then | loud *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the toad and the snakes |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 3 | **lay** | infinitive | the toad and the snakes *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wriggle** | gerund | the toad and the snakes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «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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