---
title: Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he had hea… — The Tale of Peter Rabbit · tree and pragmatics
description: Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny. Who acts: Peter. A sentence of «The Tale of Peter Rabbit» by Beatrix Potter, Frederick Warne, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Frederick Warne, sentence 44

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Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny.

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**Who acts:** Peter · **What happens:** think, go away, speak, hear · **To what, where:** cat, cousin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Peter), 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:pg14838:2:44
# text = Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny.
1	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
4	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	away	away	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
16	about	about	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	cousin	cousin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Benjamin	Benjamin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
24	Bunny	Bunny	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **go away** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  | cat |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to she=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **hear** | past · perfect | Peter |  |  | Peter's cousin |  | about cats | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.source»: agent=Agent about cat=Theme from cousin=Source |

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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 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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