---
title: He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted b… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. Who acts: Rabbit. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/12/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Velveteen Rabbit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/) / [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/) / 12

# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Rabbit · **What happens:** be, spot, have, line · **To what, where:** rabbit, real thread whiskers, ears

<!-- .vabout -->
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), 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:pg11757:1:12
# text = He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	bunchy	bunchy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	spotted	spot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
17	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
24	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	whiskers	whisker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	lined	line	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	pink	pink	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	sateen	sateen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Rabbit |  |  |  |  | fat *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | Rabbit *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **spot** | should · passive |  | a rabbit |  |  |  | brown *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination |
| 4 | **have** | past | Rabbit | real thread whiskers |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whisker=Patient |
| 5 | **line** | past · passive |  | Rabbit's ears |  |  |  | with pink sateen | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with sateen=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/11/)
- next →: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/13/)
- ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/)