---
title: However, the captain stroked the cat, and called, "Pussy, pussy, pus… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: However, the captain stroked the cat, and called, "Pussy, pussy, pussy!" and then the queen ventured to touch her. Who acts: captain, queen. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, IV. the Cat., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/52/23/)

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, IV. the Cat., sentence 23

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However, the captain stroked the cat, and called, "Pussy, pussy, pussy!" and then the queen ventured to touch her.

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**Who acts:** captain, queen · **What happens:** stroke, call, venture, touch · **To what, where:** cat, queen · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (captain, queen), 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:pg18442:52:23
# text = However, the captain stroked the cat, and called, "Pussy, pussy, pussy!" and then the queen ventured to touch her.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	stroked	stroke	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Pussy	pussy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	pussy	pussy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	pussy	pussy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	ventured	venture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stroke** | past | the captain | the cat |  |  |  | however *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Experiencer |
| 2 | **call** | participle | the captain *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pussy *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **venture** | past | the queen |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **touch** | to-infinitive | the queen *not said here* | queen |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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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