---
title: It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the l… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the little Rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long. Who acts: light, Boy, little Rabbit. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 154

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It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the little Rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long.

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**Who acts:** light, Boy, little Rabbit · **What happens:** be, play, find, do · **To what, where:** long weary time, light

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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 (light, Boy, little Rabbit), 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:pg11757:1:154
# text = It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the little Rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	weary	weary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	too	too	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	24	obl	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	30	det	_	_
30	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | light | a long weary time |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the Boy | a long weary time *not said here* |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **play** | to-infinitive | the Boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **find** | past | the little Rabbit | light |  |  |  | dull *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 5 | **do** | to-infinitive | the little Rabbit *not said here* |  |  |  | day | long *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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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