---
title: They had hardly begun to eat when an army of rats and mice rushed in… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: They had hardly begun to eat when an army of rats and mice rushed in, and de-voured all the meat before any one could hinder them. Who acts: dishes, one. 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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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, IV. the Cat., sentence 7

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They had hardly begun to eat when an army of rats and mice rushed in, and de-voured all the meat before any one could hinder them.

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**Who acts:** dishes, one · **What happens:** begin, eat, rush in, vour, hinder · **To what, where:** voured meat, rats, army, dishes

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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 (dishes, one), 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:pg18442:52:7
# text = They had hardly begun to eat when an army of rats and mice rushed in, and de-voured all the meat before any one could hinder them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	begun	begin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	conj	_	_
14	rushed	rush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
15	in	in	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	voured	vour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
21	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	23	det:predet	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
24	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
26	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	hinder	hinder	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past · perfect | dishes *= dish* |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | dishes *= dish* *not said here* | all voured meat |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Patient |
| 3 | **rush in** | participle |  | rats and mice *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **vour** | participle · passive |  | a army of rats and mice |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hinder** | could | any one | dishes *= dish* |  |  |  |  | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer they=Eventuality |

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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:** «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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