---
title: The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every o… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. Who acts: mechanical toys, TOYS. 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 19

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The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real.

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**Who acts:** mechanical toys, TOYS · **What happens:** be, look down, pretend

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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 (mechanical toys, TOYS), 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:pg11757:1:19
# text = The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	mechanical	mechanical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	toys	toy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	superior	superior	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	down	down	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	else	else	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	modern	modern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	ideas	idea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the mechanical toys |  |  |  |  | superior *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look down** | past | the mechanical toys *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon every one; down *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon one=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | TOYS *= toy* |  |  |  |  | of modern ideas; full *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **pretend** | past | TOYS *= toy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | TOYS *= toy* |  |  |  |  | real *property* | tree rules |

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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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