The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 91
One evening, while the Rabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro between his velvet paws in the grass, he saw two strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near him.
Who acts: Rabbit, ants, two strange beings · What happens: lie, watch, run, fro, see, creep out · To what, where: ants, tall bracken · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rabbit, ants, two strange beings), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
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
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 evening | nummod |
| 2 | evening | evening | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 lying | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 lying | punct |
| 4 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 8 lying | mark |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 Rabbit | det |
| 6 | Rabbit | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 lying | nsubj |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 lying | aux |
| 8 | lying | lie | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 9 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 8 lying | advmod |
| 10 | alone | alone | ADV | _ | 8 lying | advmod |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 watching | punct |
| 12 | watching | watch | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 8 lying | conj |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 ants | det |
| 14 | ants | ant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 watching | obj |
| 15 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 16 ran | nsubj |
| 16 | ran | run | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 ants | acl:relcl |
| 17 | to | to | ADP | _ | 16 ran | obl |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 fro | cc |
| 19 | fro | fro | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 ran | conj |
| 20 | between | between | ADP | _ | 23 paws | case |
| 21 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 paws | nmod:poss |
| 22 | velvet | velvet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 paws | compound |
| 23 | paws | paw | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 fro | obl |
| 24 | in | in | ADP | _ | 26 grass | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 grass | det |
| 26 | grass | grass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 paws | nmod |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 saw | punct |
| 28 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 saw | nsubj |
| 29 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 lying | conj |
| 30 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 32 beings | nummod |
| 31 | strange | strange | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 beings | amod |
| 32 | beings | being | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 creep | nsubj |
| 33 | creep | creep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 saw | ccomp |
| 34 | out | out | ADP | _ | 38 bracken | case |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 bracken | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 bracken | det |
| 37 | tall | tall | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 bracken | amod |
| 38 | bracken | bracken | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 creep | obl |
| 39 | near | near | ADP | _ | 40 him | case |
| 40 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 bracken | nmod |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 lying | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | lie | past · progressive | the Rabbit | there | evening | alone property | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||
| 2 | watch | gerund | the Rabbit not said here | the ants | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ant=Theme | ||||
| 3 | run | past | the ants | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | fro | infinitive | the ants not said here | between Rabbit's velvet paws in the grass | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | see | past | Rabbit | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 6 | creep out | present | two strange beings | the tall bracken near Rabbit | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location bracken=Theme |
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.
Text: «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Project Gutenberg book 11757 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/91/