---
title: “Whatever can that be?” cried out the stepmother, and the girl had t… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Whatever can that be?” cried out the stepmother, and the girl had to tell her all about it, and what she had promised the frog. Who acts: stepmother, girl. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Well of the World's End, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Well of the World's End, sentence 25

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“Whatever can that be?” cried out the stepmother, and the girl had to tell her all about it, and what she had promised the frog.

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**Who acts:** stepmother, girl · **What happens:** be, have, tell, promise · **To what, where:** stepmother, frog · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Well of the World's End. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stepmother, girl), 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:pg7439:47:25
# text = “Whatever can that be?” cried out the stepmother, and the girl had to tell her all about it, and what she had promised the frog.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	obj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	obl	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	frog	frog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | infinitive | the stepmother |  |  |  |  | cry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | the girl *not said here* |  | stepmother |  |  | about darling | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent she=Recipient about it=Topic |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past · perfect | girl |  | the frog |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent frog=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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