---
title: However, what troubled him most was the idea of having to meet the F… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: However, what troubled him most was the idea of having to meet the Frog who had been his benefactress. Who acts: idea, Frog. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, sentence 3

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However, what troubled him most was the idea of having to meet the Frog who had been his benefactress.

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**Who acts:** idea, Frog · **What happens:** trouble, be, have, meet · **To what, where:** Prince, idea, Frog, benefactress

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, 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 (idea, Frog), 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:pg640:12:3
# text = However, what troubled him most was the idea of having to meet the Frog who had been his benefactress.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
4	troubled	trouble	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	9	advmod	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	advcl	_	_
10	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	having	have	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	acl	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Frog	Frog	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
18	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	benefactress	benefactress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **trouble** | past |  | Prince |  |  |  | however *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the idea |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | gerund | the idea *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **meet** | to-infinitive | the idea *not said here* | the Frog |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent frog=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past · perfect | the Frog | Prince's benefactress |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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