---
title: Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her ro… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her room with rushes and wild yellow flowers, to make it look pretty for her new daughter-in-law. Who acts: old toad, room. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, with its depe
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina, sentence 25

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Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her room with rushes and wild yellow flowers, to make it look pretty for her new daughter-in-law.

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**Who acts:** old toad, room · **What happens:** be, deck, make, look · **To what, where:** marsh, room

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Little Tiny or Thumbelina. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old toad, room), 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:pg27200:79:25
# text = Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her room with rushes and wild yellow flowers, to make it look pretty for her new daughter-in-law.
1	Meanwhile	meanwhile	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	under	under	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	marsh	marsh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	decking	deck	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	rushes	rush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	pretty	pretty	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
29	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
30	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the old toad |  |  | the marsh |  | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **deck** | gerund | the old toad *not said here* | toad's room |  |  |  | with rushes and wild yellow flowers | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent room=Destination with rush=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | the old toad *not said here* | room |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | infinitive | room *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for toad's new law; pretty *property* | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for law=Theme |

<!-- .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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