---
title: For the boy had often talked of the seaside, and he wanted very much… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: For the boy had often talked of the seaside, and he wanted very much to see the big waves coming in, and the tiny crabs, and the sand castles. Who acts: Boy, tiny crabs, big waves, sand. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 168

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For the boy had often talked of the seaside, and he wanted very much to see the big waves coming in, and the tiny crabs, and the sand castles.

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**Who acts:** Boy, tiny crabs, big waves, sand · **What happens:** talk, want, see, come in, castle · **To what, where:** tiny crabs, big waves

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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, tiny crabs, big waves, sand), 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:pg11757:1:168
# text = For the boy had often talked of the seaside, and he wanted very much to see the big waves coming in, and the tiny crabs, and the sand castles.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	often	often	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	talked	talk	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	seaside	seaside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	much	much	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
21	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	in	in	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	crabs	crab	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	castles	castle	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **talk** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | for the boy; of the seaside; often *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **want** | past | Boy | the tiny crabs |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **see** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the tiny crabs *not said here* | the big waves |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wave=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come in** | gerund | the big waves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **castle** | present | the sand |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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