---
title: And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and peeped at him. Who acts: Boy, two rabbits. 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/pg11757/1/229/)

<!-- 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/) / 229

# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 229

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and peeped at him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Boy, two rabbits · **What happens:** play, creep out, peep · **To what, where:** bracken

<!-- .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 (Boy, two rabbits), 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:pg11757:1:229
# text = And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and peeped at him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	out	out	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	bracken	bracken	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** | past · progressive | Boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **creep out** | past | two rabbits |  |  | the bracken |  | out *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from bracken=Trajectory |
| 3 | **peep** | past | two rabbits *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at Boy | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=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 228](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/228/)
- next →: [sentence 230](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/230/)
- ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/)