---
title: Then King Frost gnashed his teeth, and cracked his fingers, and his… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then King Frost gnashed his teeth, and cracked his fingers, and his eyes sparkled, and the crackling, crisp sound was louder than ever, and for the last time he asked her: Who acts: King, eyes, crackling. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26), with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/37/23/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Story of King Frost (26)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/37/) / 23

# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Story of King Frost (26), sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then King Frost gnashed his teeth, and cracked his fingers, and his eyes sparkled, and the crackling, crisp sound was louder than ever, and for the last time he asked her:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** King, eyes, crackling · **What happens:** gnash, crack, sparkle, be, ask · **To what, where:** teeth, fingers, girl

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of King Frost (26). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, eyes, crackling), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg640:37:23
# text = Then King Frost gnashed his teeth, and cracked his fingers, and his eyes sparkled, and the crackling, crisp sound was louder than ever, and for the last time he asked her:
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	Frost	Frost	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	_
4	gnashed	gnash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	cracked	crack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sparkled	sparkle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	crackling	crackling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	crisp	crisp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	louder	loud	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	16	conj	_	_
26	than	than	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
30	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
36	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	35	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gnash** | past | King | king's teeth |  |  | then |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient |
| 2 | **crack** | past | King *not said here* | king's fingers |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location finger=Theme |
| 3 | **sparkle** | past | king's eyes |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | the crackling and crisp sound |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | king |  | girl |  | time |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/37/22/)
- next →: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/37/24/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of King Frost (26)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/37/)