---
title: The old toad bowed low in the water before her, and said: ‘Here is m… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old toad bowed low in the water before her, and said: ‘Here is my son; you shall marry him, and live in great magnificence down under the marsh.’ Who acts: old toad, you. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old toad bowed low in the water before her, and said: ‘Here is my son; you shall marry him, and live in great magnificence down under the marsh.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old toad, you · **What happens:** bow, say, be, marry, live down · **To what, where:** old toad, water, son, great magnificence · **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 (old toad, you), 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:pg640:47:98
# text = The old toad bowed low in the water before her, and said: ‘Here is my son; you shall marry him, and live in great magnificence down under the marsh.’
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	13	nsubj	_	_
4	bowed	bow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	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	before	before	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	Here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	ccomp	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	live	live	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	magnificence	magnificence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	down	down	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
32	under	under	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	marsh	marsh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | participle |  | the old toad *not said here* |  | the water | before THUMBELINA | low *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in water=Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old toad |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **marry** | shall | you | son |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 5 | **live down** | present | you *not said here* |  |  | great magnificence |  | under the marsh | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in magnificence=Location |

<!-- .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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