---
title: Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages,… — The Tale of Peter Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, 'Stop thief!' Who acts: McGregor, hands. A sentence of «The Tale of Peter Rabbit» by Beatrix Potter, Frederick Warne, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Frederick Warne, sentence 17

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Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, 'Stop thief!'

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**Who acts:** McGregor, hands · **What happens:** be, plant out, jump up, run, wave, call out · **To what, where:** hands, young cabbages, rake, thief

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This is a sentence of «The Tale of Peter Rabbit» by Beatrix Potter, Frederick Warne. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (McGregor, hands), 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:pg14838:2:17
# text = Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, 'Stop thief!'
1	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod:desc	_	_
2	McGregor	McGregor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
9	planting	plant	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	cabbages	cabbage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
20	after	after	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	waving	wave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	rake	rake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	conj	_	_
28	out	out	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	Stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	obj	_	_
32	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | McGregor  Mr. |  |  | McGregor's hands and knees |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **plant out** | gerund | McGregor's hands and knees *not said here* | young cabbages |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cabbage=Patient |
| 3 | **jump up** | past | McGregor |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **run** | past | McGregor *not said here* |  |  |  | after Peter |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **wave** | gerund | McGregor *not said here* | a rake |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rake=Patient |
| 6 | **call out** *speech: assert* | gerund | McGregor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **stop** | infinitive |  | thief |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality thief=Eventuality |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «The Tale of Peter Rabbit» by Beatrix Potter, Project Gutenberg book 14838 (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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