---
title: 'I am not a "mere frog," and I will give you proof of it,' retorted… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I am not a "mere frog," and I will give you proof of it,' retorted the angry little creature. Who acts: mere frog, I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 83

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'I am not a "mere frog," and I will give you proof of it,' retorted the angry little creature.

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**Who acts:** mere frog, I · **What happens:** not be, give, retort, proof · **To what, where:** mere frog, proof, you, angry little creature · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mere frog, I), 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:pg3027:28:83
# text = 'I am not a "mere frog," and I will give you proof of it,' retorted the angry little creature.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	mere	mere	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	frog	frog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	proof	proof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
21	retorted	retort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | present | a mere frog *= frog* | a mere frog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | future | I | proof of proof | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient proof=Theme |
| 3 | **retort** *speech: other* | past | a mere frog | the angry little creature |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent creature=Topic |
| 4 | **proof** |  |  | proof |  |  |  |  | nom proof «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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