--- title: But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, a… — The Velveteen Rabbit · tree and pragmatics description: But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in. Who acts: Rabbit, Boy, nice tunnels, real rabbits. A sentence of «The Velveteen Rabbit» by Margery Williams Bianco, Open --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/66/) [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/) / 66 # The Velveteen Rabbit, Opening, sentence 66 But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in. **Who acts:** Rabbit, Boy, nice tunnels, real rabbits · **What happens:** grow, like, use, talk, make, say · **To what, where:** house, Rabbit, bedclothes, burrows · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Rabbit, Boy, nice tunnels, real rabbits), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg11757:1:66 # text = But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 5 cc _ _ 2 very very ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ _ 3 soon soon ADV RB Degree=Pos 5 advmod _ _ 4 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 5 grew grow VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 to to PART TO _ 7 mark _ _ 7 like like VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 xcomp _ _ 8 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 7 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 13 punct _ _ 10 for for SCONJ IN _ 13 mark _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 Boy Boy PROPN NNP Number=Sing 13 nsubj _ _ 13 used use VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 14 to to PART TO _ 15 mark _ _ 15 talk talk VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 13 xcomp _ _ 16 to to 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 , _ 20 punct _ _ 19 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 20 made make VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 21 nice nice ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 22 amod _ _ 22 tunnels tunnel NOUN NNS Number=Plur 34 nsubj _ _ 23 for for ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 nmod _ _ 25 under under ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 bedclothes bedclothe NOUN NNS Number=Plur 22 nmod _ _ 28 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 30 obj _ _ 29 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 30 nsubj _ _ 30 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 acl:relcl _ _ 31 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 34 cop _ _ 32 like like ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 33 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 34 det _ _ 34 burrows burrow NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 obl _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 36 real real ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 rabbits rabbit NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 nsubj _ _ 38 lived live VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 34 acl:relcl _ _ 39 in in ADV RB _ 38 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 40 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **grow** | past | Rabbit | | | | | soon *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **like** | to-infinitive | Rabbit *not said here* | house | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot it=Theme | | 3 | **use** | past | the Boy | | | | | | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 4 | **talk** | to-infinitive | the Boy *not said here* | | Rabbit | | | | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to he=Co-Agent | | 5 | **make** | past | Rabbit *not said here* | | | | | | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | | 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Rabbit | the bedclothes | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent that=Topic | | 7 | **is** | past | nice tunnels for Rabbit under the bedclothes | | | | | like the burrows | tree rules | | 8 | **live in** | past | the real rabbits | the burrows *not said here* | | | | | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme burrow=Location | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/65/) - next →: [sentence 67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/67/) - ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg11757/1/)