---
title: He was able to sit up in bed and look at picture-books, while the li… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: He was able to sit up in bed and look at picture-books, while the little Rabbit cuddled close at his side. 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 158

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He was able to sit up in bed and look at picture-books, while the little Rabbit cuddled close at his side.

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**Who acts:** Boy · **What happens:** be, sit up, look, cuddle · **To what, where:** little Rabbit, bed, side

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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:pg11757:1:158
# text = He was able to sit up in bed and look at picture-books, while the little Rabbit cuddled close at his side.
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	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	Rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
20	cuddled	cuddle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	close	close	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Boy |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit up** | to-infinitive | Boy *not said here* | the little Rabbit |  | bed |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in bed=Location |
| 3 | **look** | infinitive | Boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at picture books | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at book=Theme |
| 4 | **cuddle** | participle |  | the little Rabbit *not said here* |  | Boy's side |  | close *property* | vn marry-36.2 «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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