---
title: But just then the royal Cat spied him, and the next instant, the Rat… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: But just then the royal Cat spied him, and the next instant, the Rat knew he was _not_ quite so important as an Elephant. Who acts: royal Cat, next instant, Rat. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Rat and the Elephant, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Aesop for Children, The Rat and the Elephant, sentence 16

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But just then the royal Cat spied him, and the next instant, the Rat knew he was \_not\_ quite so important as an Elephant.

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**Who acts:** royal Cat, next instant, Rat · **What happens:** spy, know, not be · **To what, where:** pride

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This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Rat and the Elephant. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (royal Cat, next instant, Rat), 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:pg19994:31:16
# text = But just then the royal Cat spied him, and the next instant, the Rat knew he was _not_ quite so important as an Elephant.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	Cat	Cat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	Rat	Rat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
20	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	25	punct	_	_
23	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	Elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spy** | past | the royal Cat | pride |  |  | then |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **know** | past | the next instant |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | Rat |  |  |  |  | as a Elephant; important *property* | tree rules |

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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 Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (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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