---
title: “Why,” said the little kitchen maid, “those are frogs croaking, but… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: “Why,” said the little kitchen maid, “those are frogs croaking, but very soon we shall hear her.” Who acts: little kitchen maid, frogs, we. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/137/)

<!-- 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 Jade Story Book; Stories from the…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/) / [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/) / 137

# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 1, sentence 137

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Why,” said the little kitchen maid, “those are frogs croaking, but very soon we shall hear her.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little kitchen maid, frogs, we · **What happens:** say, be, croak, hear · **To what, where:** frogs, maid · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little kitchen maid, frogs, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:1:145
# text = “Why,” said the little kitchen maid, “those are frogs croaking, but very soon we shall hear her.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	maid	maid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
13	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	croaking	croak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
20	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the little kitchen maid |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present |  | that frogs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **croak** *in a quote* | gerund | that frogs |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **hear** *in a quote* | shall | we | maid |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer she=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Project Gutenberg book 65965 (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 136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/136/)
- next →: [sentence 138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/138/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg65965/1/)