---
title: ‘Still,’ answered the toad, ‘you may as well tell me your difficulty… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Still,’ answered the toad, ‘you may as well tell me your difficulty, for who knows but I mayn’t be able to help you this time also.’ Who acts: you, I. 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 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Still,’ answered the toad, ‘you may as well tell me your difficulty, for who knows but I mayn’t be able to help you this time also.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** answer, tell, know, not be, help · **To what, where:** toad, difficulty, me, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, I), 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:pg7277:30:21
# text = ‘Still,’ answered the toad, ‘you may as well tell me your difficulty, for who knows but I mayn’t be able to help you this time also.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	toad	toad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
12	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	14	cc	_	_
13	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	fixed	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
27	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl:unmarked	_	_
33	also	also	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the toad |  | still |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent toad=Eventuality |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | may | you | your difficulty | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient difficulty=Topic |
| 3 | **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **is** | may | I |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  | time |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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