---
title: Just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the Boy ran past near… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: Just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the Boy ran past near them, and with a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails the two strange rabbits disappeared. Who acts: Boy, two strange rabbits, white tails. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its depen
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 135

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Just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the Boy ran past near them, and with a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails the two strange rabbits disappeared.

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**Who acts:** Boy, two strange rabbits, white tails · **What happens:** be, disappear, flash

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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 (Boy, two strange rabbits, white tails), 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:pg11757:1:135
# text = Just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the Boy ran past near them, and with a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails the two strange rabbits disappeared.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	past	past	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	near	near	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stamp	stamp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	flash	flash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
32	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
34	disappeared	disappear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Boy |  |  |  |  | near footsteps *= footstep*; past, run *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **disappear** | past | the two strange rabbits |  |  |  |  | with a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **flash** |  | white tails |  |  |  |  |  | nom flash «event intransitive»: of=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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