---
title: But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to loo… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real. Who acts: Boy, child, own Bunny. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 233

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But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.

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**Who acts:** Boy, child, own Bunny · **What happens:** not know, be, come back, look, have, help · **To what, where:** own Bunny, Boy

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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, child, own Bunny), 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:pg11757:1:233
# text = But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	really	really	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Bunny	bunny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	_
14	back	back	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	21	advmod	_	_
23	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
27	Real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past | Boy |  |  |  |  | that fever | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | Boy's own Bunny |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come back** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at the child | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at child=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | past | the child |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **help** | past | Boy's own Bunny |  | Boy |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 7 | **is** | to-infinitive | Boy's own Bunny *not said here* |  |  |  |  | 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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