---
title: That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or ha… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Who acts: That, it, people. 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 40

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That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

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**Who acts:** That, it, people · **What happens:** be, not happen, break, have, keep · **To what, where:** sharp edges

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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 (That, it, people), 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:pg11757:1:40
# text = That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl:relcl	_	_
8	often	often	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	break	break	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
17	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	edges	edge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
25	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | That |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **happen** | present · do-support | it |  |  |  |  | to people; often *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | present | people |  |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | present | people *not said here* | sharp edges |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent edge=Patient |
| 5 | **have** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **keep** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP» |

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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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