---
title: The Otter says he came to the backwater for «a moment's peace» and t… — The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, part 3: The… · tree and pragmatics
description: The Otter says he came to the backwater for «a moment's peace» and then says sorry because that sounds as if he didn't want to meet them — he puts his foot in it, then tries to take it back. Who acts: Otter, that, moment. A sentence of the lesson «The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, part 3: The Rive
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/20/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / [The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, pa…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/) / 20

# The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, part 3: The River Bank (the Otter, a glimpse of Badger, and Toad in his new boat), sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Otter says he came to the backwater for «a moment's peace» and then says sorry because that sounds as if he didn't want to meet them — he puts his foot in it, then tries to take it back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Otter, that, moment · **What happens:** say, come, sound, not want, meet, put · **To what, where:** backwater, crowds, foot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, part 3: The River Bank (the Otter, a glimpse of Badger, and Toad in his new boat)» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Otter, that, moment), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:books:027-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad.lesson:20
# text = The Otter says he came to the backwater for «a moment's peace» and then says sorry because that sounds as if he didn't want to meet them — he puts his foot in it, then tries to take it back.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = books
# lesson = 027-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Otter	Otter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=3:nsubj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing
3	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	backwater	backwater	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
10	«	«	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	's	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
15	»	»	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=18:punct|HaikuPos=PUNCT:,:_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
18	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
22	sounds	sound	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	Agree=R7-rel-agree|Haiku=18:ccomp
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	puts	put	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	_
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	41	advmod	_	_
41	tries	try	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
44	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	_
45	back	back	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the Otter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past | Otter |  |  | the backwater |  | for a moment's peace | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to backwater=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: apologize* | present | the Otter *not said here* |  |  |  | then | sorry *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **sound** | present | that |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | Otter |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **meet** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Otter *not said here* | crowds *= crowd* |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Co-Agent |
| 7 | **put** | present | Otter | Otter's foot |  | foot |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent foot=Theme in it=Destination |
| 8 | **try** | present | the Otter *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 9 | **take back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the Otter *not said here* | foot |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 10 | **pacify** *in a quote* |  | a moment |  |  |  |  |  | nom peace «state transitive»: poss=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:books:027-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad.lesson:20`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1, R7-rel-agree ×1, R8-pos-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, pa…, 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/19/)
- next →: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter I, pa…, 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/21/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/27-willows-ch1-part3-otter-badger-and-toad/)