---
title: After a time they had a visit from an old cat, whom they called thei… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After a time they had a visit from an old cat, whom they called their father, who lived by himself in a barn at the top of the hill, and came down from time to time to inspect the little colony. Who acts: Cats, father. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, pa
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/36/21/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/36/) / 21

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After a time they had a visit from an old cat, whom they called their father, who lived by himself in a barn at the top of the hill, and came down from time to time to inspect the little colony.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Cats, father · **What happens:** have, call, live, come down, inspect · **To what, where:** visit, old cat, barn, little colony · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cats, father), 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:pg2435:36:21
# text = After a time they had a visit from an old cat, whom they called their father, who lived by himself in a barn at the top of the hill, and came down from time to time to inspect the little colony.
1	After	after	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	visit	visit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	15	obj	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	barn	barn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
35	down	down	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	from	from	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
38	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	inspect	inspect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	acl	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
43	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	colony	colony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Cats *= cat* | a visit |  |  | time | from a old cat | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent visit=Patient |
| 2 | **call** | past | Cats *= cat* |  | a old cat |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent whom=Recipient |
| 3 | **live** | past | Cats's father |  |  | a barn |  | by house; at the top of the hill | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in barn=Location |
| 4 | **come down** | past | Cats *= cat* *not said here* |  |  |  | time | down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **inspect** | to-infinitive | Cats *= cat* *not said here* | the little colony |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colony=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/36/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/36/22/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/36/)