---
title: "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" Who acts: it, Horse. 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/pg11757/1/36/)

<!-- 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/) / 36

# The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, Horse · **What happens:** happen, woun up, ask · **To what, where:** bit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (it, Horse), 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:pg11757:1:36
# text = "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	wound	woun	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	bit	bit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** *in a quote* | present · do-support | it |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **woun up** *in a quote* | gerund · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Horse | bit by bit |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/37/)
- ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/)