---
title: But they never returned, and presently the sun sank lower and the li… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: But they never returned, and presently the sun sank lower and the little white moths fluttered out, and the Boy came and carried him home. Who acts: strangers, sun, little white moths, Boy. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 145

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But they never returned, and presently the sun sank lower and the little white moths fluttered out, and the Boy came and carried him home.

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**Who acts:** strangers, sun, little white moths, Boy · **What happens:** not return, sink, flutter out, come, carry · **To what, where:** Boy

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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 (strangers, sun, little white moths, 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:pg11757:1:145
# text = But they never returned, and presently the sun sank lower and the little white moths fluttered out, and the Boy came and carried him home.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	lower	low	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	home	home	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **return** | past | strangers *= stranger* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **sink** | past | the sun |  |  |  |  | low, presently *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **flutter out** | participle | the little white moths |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | past | the Boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **carry** | past | the Boy *not said here* | Boy |  |  |  | home *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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.

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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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