---
title: He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbi… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. Who acts: 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 148

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He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy.

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**Who acts:** Boy · **What happens:** begin, lose, look · **To what, where:** shape

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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), 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:pg11757:1:148
# text = He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	even	even	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	like	like	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	any	any	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	except	except	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **lose** | to-infinitive | Boy *not said here* | Boy's shape |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shape=Eventuality |
| 3 | **look** | past | Boy |  |  |  |  | like a rabbit; except the Boy; scarcely *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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