---
title: And while the Boy was asleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little Ra… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: And while the Boy was asleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little Rabbit lay among the old picture-books in the corner behind the fowl-house, and he felt very lonely. Who acts: Boy, little Rabbit. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 184

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And while the Boy was asleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little Rabbit lay among the old picture-books in the corner behind the fowl-house, and he felt very lonely.

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**Who acts:** Boy, little Rabbit · **What happens:** be, dream, lie, feel · **To what, where:** corner

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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, 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:pg11757:1:184
# text = And while the Boy was asleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little Rabbit lay among the old picture-books in the corner behind the fowl-house, and he felt very lonely.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Boy	Boy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	dreaming	dream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	seaside	seaside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	among	among	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
20	picture	picture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	books	book	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
26	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	fowl	fowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
35	very	very	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	lonely	lonely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Boy |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **dream** | gerund | the Boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the seaside | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lie** | past | the little Rabbit |  |  | the corner behind the fowl house |  | among the old picture books | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among book=Location |
| 4 | **feel** | past | Boy |  |  |  |  | lonely *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: 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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