---
title: He meant when the Boy threw him, but of course he didn't want to say… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: He meant when the Boy threw him, but of course he didn't want to say so. Who acts: Rabbit, Boy. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 107

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He meant when the Boy threw him, but of course he didn't want to say so.

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**Who acts:** Rabbit, Boy · **What happens:** mean, throw, not want, say · **To what, where:** Rabbit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, Boy), 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:pg11757:1:107
# text = He meant when the Boy threw him, but of course he didn't want to say so.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	15	advmod	_	_
11	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	fixed	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | past | Rabbit |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **throw** | past | the Boy | Rabbit |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **want** | past · do-support | Rabbit |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Rabbit *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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 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.

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