---
title: When he spoke to his wife and she answered him, instead of the usual… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he spoke to his wife and she answered him, instead of the usual piece of gold a toad jumped out of her mouth. Who acts: King, wife, toad. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 1, sentence 82

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When he spoke to his wife and she answered him, instead of the usual piece of gold a toad jumped out of her mouth.

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**Who acts:** King, wife, toad · **What happens:** speak, answer, jump out · **To what, where:** King, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, wife, 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:pg540:37:82
# text = When he spoke to his wife and she answered him, instead of the usual piece of gold a toad jumped out of her mouth.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	16	case	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	fixed	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	out	out	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | King |  |  |  |  | to King's wife; instead the usual piece of gold | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to wife=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | wife |  | King |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 3 | **jump out** | past | a toad | wife's mouth |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mouth=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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