---
title: For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those play… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it. Who acts: playthings. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/27/)

<!-- 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/) / 27

# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** playthings · **What happens:** be, experience, understand

<!-- .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 (playthings), 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:pg11757:1:27
# text = For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	nursery	nursery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
11	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	playthings	plaything	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	conj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	experienced	experience	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	Skin	Skin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	Horse	Horse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obl:agent	_	_
25	understand	understand	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
26	all	all	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
27	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | for nursery magic; strange *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | that playthings |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | that playthings *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **experience** | participle | that playthings *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **understand** | present | that playthings |  |  |  |  | about magic | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about it=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/28/)
- ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/)