---
title: Suddenly a misshapen toad crawled out of the swamp, and, sitting dow… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly a misshapen toad crawled out of the swamp, and, sitting down opposite him, asked: ‘What’s the matter with you, my dear Prince?’ Who acts: misshapen toad. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Suddenly a misshapen toad crawled out of the swamp, and, sitting down opposite him, asked: ‘What’s the matter with you, my dear Prince?’

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**Who acts:** misshapen toad · **What happens:** crawl, sit down, ask · **To what, where:** swamp

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (misshapen toad), 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:pg7277:29:82
# text = Suddenly a misshapen toad crawled out of the swamp, and, sitting down opposite him, asked: ‘What’s the matter with you, my dear Prince?’
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	misshapen	misshapen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	swamp	swamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	advcl	_	_
14	down	down	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	opposite	opposite	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crawl** | past | a misshapen toad |  |  | the swamp |  | suddenly *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out swamp=Trajectory |
| 2 | **sit down** | gerund | a misshapen toad *not said here* |  |  |  |  | opposite toad; down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent opposite he=Location |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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