---
title: But before they drank they all rubbed themselves against her knees a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But before they drank they all rubbed themselves against her knees and purred by way of thanks. Who acts: pussies. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 10, sentence 69

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But before they drank they all rubbed themselves against her knees and purred by way of thanks.

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**Who acts:** pussies · **What happens:** drink, rub, purr · **To what, where:** pussies, knees

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pussies), 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:pg3027:10:69
# text = But before they drank they all rubbed themselves against her knees and purred by way of thanks.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	drank	drink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
7	rubbed	rub	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	against	against	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	purred	purr	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	thanks	thanks	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drink** | past | pussies *= pussy* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **rub** | past | pussies *= pussy* | pussies *= pussy* |  | cow's knees |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme against knee=Destination |
| 3 | **purr** | participle | pussies *= pussy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by way of thanks | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by way=Location |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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