---
title: He remembered the cat which little Whittington had sent out; and he… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: He remembered the cat which little Whittington had sent out; and he told the king that he had a little creature on board his ship which would make short work of the pests. Who acts: king, little Whittington, ship, pests. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, IV. the Cat., wit
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, IV. the Cat., sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He remembered the cat which little Whittington had sent out; and he told the king that he had a little creature on board his ship which would make short work of the pests.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, little Whittington, ship, pests · **What happens:** remember, send out, tell, have, make, work · **To what, where:** cat, king, little creature, ship, short work · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, IV. the Cat.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, little Whittington, ship, pests), 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:pg18442:52:12
# text = He remembered the cat which little Whittington had sent out; and he told the king that he had a little creature on board his ship which would make short work of the pests.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	Whittington	Whittington	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sent	send	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	acl:relcl	_	_
10	out	out	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	board	board	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	pests	pest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remember** | past | king | the cat |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent cat=Theme |
| 2 | **send out** | past · perfect | little Whittington | the cat |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | king |  | the king |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent king=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **have** | past | king | a little creature |  | king's ship |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent creature=Patient |
| 5 | **make** | would | king's ship | short work of the pests |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset work=Product |
| 6 | **work** |  | the pests |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: of=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.

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**Text:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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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