---
title: The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of h… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. Who acts: model boat, opportunity. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with it
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms.

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**Who acts:** model boat, opportunity · **What happens:** live, lose, catch, not miss, refer · **To what, where:** most, tone, opportunity, technical terms

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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 (model boat, opportunity), 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:pg11757:1:20
# text = The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	model	model	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	lived	live	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	seasons	season	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	paint	paint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
18	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	referring	refer	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	rigging	rigging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	technical	technical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	terms	term	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past · perfect | the model boat |  |  |  | season |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** | past | the model boat *not said here* | most of Rabbit's paint |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent most=Eventuality |
| 3 | **catch** | past | the model boat | the tone |  |  |  | from TOYS *= toy* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent tone=Theme from they=Source |
| 4 | **not** **miss** | past | the model boat *not said here* | a opportunity |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer opportunity=Stimulus |
| 5 | **refer** | gerund | a opportunity *not said here* |  |  | technical terms |  | to Rabbit's rigging | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to rigging=Co-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.

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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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