---
title: That was a fine place to make a bonfire, only the gardener was too b… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: That was a fine place to make a bonfire, only the gardener was too busy just then to attend to it. Who acts: That, gardener. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/179/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Velveteen Rabbit](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/) / [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/) / 179

# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 179

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That was a fine place to make a bonfire, only the gardener was too busy just then to attend to it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** That, gardener · **What happens:** be, make, attend · **To what, where:** fine place, bonfire, gardener

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (That, gardener), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg11757:1:179
# text = That was a fine place to make a bonfire, only the gardener was too busy just then to attend to it.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bonfire	bonfire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	gardener	gardener	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	too	too	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	_
17	just	just	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | That | a fine place |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | a bonfire |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset bonfire=Product |
| 3 | **is** | past | the gardener |  |  |  | then | busy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **attend** | to-infinitive | the gardener *not said here* |  | gardener |  |  |  | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent to it=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 178](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/178/)
- next →: [sentence 180](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/180/)
- ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/)