---
title: In a few minutes the toad stood in front of him and asked, ‘What’s t… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a few minutes the toad stood in front of him and asked, ‘What’s the matter with you now, my dear Prince?’ Who acts: toad. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 5, sentence 19

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In a few minutes the toad stood in front of him and asked, ‘What’s the matter with you now, my dear Prince?’

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**Who acts:** toad · **What happens:** stand, ask, be · **To what, where:** front, dear Prince, matter

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

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | the toad |  |  | front of Prince | minute |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the toad *not said here* | my dear Prince |  |  | now |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | the matter |  |  |  | with you | tree rules |

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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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