---
title: The old toad was down under the marsh, decorating her room with rush… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old toad was down under the marsh, decorating her room with rushes and yellow marigold leaves, to make it very grand for her new daughter-in-law; then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf where Thumbelina lay. Who acts: old toad, marsh, leaf, Thumbelina. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Boo
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 96

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The old toad was down under the marsh, decorating her room with rushes and yellow marigold leaves, to make it very grand for her new daughter-in-law; then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf where Thumbelina lay.

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**Who acts:** old toad, marsh, leaf, Thumbelina · **What happens:** be, decorate, make, swim out, lie · **To what, where:** marsh, room, toad, leaf

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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 (old toad, marsh, leaf, Thumbelina), 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:pg640:47:96
# text = The old toad was down under the marsh, decorating her room with rushes and yellow marigold leaves, to make it very grand for her new daughter-in-law; then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf where Thumbelina lay.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	under	under	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	marsh	marsh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	decorating	decorate	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
11	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	rushes	rush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	marigold	marigold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	grand	grand	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	advmod	_	_
35	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
37	out	out	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
38	with	with	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
40	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
45	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	47	advmod	_	_
46	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
47	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the old toad |  |  | the marsh |  | down *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **decorate** | gerund | the marsh *not said here* | leaf's room |  |  |  | with rushes and yellow marigold leaves | vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent room=Destination with rush=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | the marsh *not said here* | toad |  |  |  | grand *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 4 | **swim out** | past | leaf |  |  | the leaf | then | with leaf's ugly son; out *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to leaf=Destination |
| 5 | **lie** | past | Thumbelina |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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