---
title: The little fishes swimming about under the water had seen the toad q… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The little fishes swimming about under the water had seen the toad quite plainly, and heard what she had said; so they put up their heads to see the little girl. Who acts: little fishes, THUMBELINA, fishes. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with i
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 101

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little fishes swimming about under the water had seen the toad quite plainly, and heard what she had said; so they put up their heads to see the little girl.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little fishes, THUMBELINA, fishes · **What happens:** swim, see, hear, say, put up · **To what, where:** little fishes, heads, little girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little fishes, THUMBELINA, fishes), 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:pg640:47:101
# text = The little fishes swimming about under the water had seen the toad quite plainly, and heard what she had said; so they put up their heads to see the little girl.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
5	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	under	under	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	plainly	plainly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	17	obj	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** | gerund | the little fishes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the water | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about water=Trajectory |
| 2 | **see** | past · perfect · passive |  | the little fishes |  |  |  | plainly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | THUMBELINA |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **put up** | past | fishes *= fish* | fishes's heads |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent head=Goal |
| 6 | **see** | to-infinitive | fishes *= fish* *not said here* | the little girl |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer girl=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 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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