---
title: About midnight the cat, who was still sleeping before the gate, was… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: About midnight the cat, who was still sleeping before the gate, was awakened by some water flung at her by the head rat, who could not make up his mind to open the doors. Who acts: midnight cat, rat. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 15, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 15, sentence 14

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About midnight the cat, who was still sleeping before the gate, was awakened by some water flung at her by the head rat, who could not make up his mind to open the doors.

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**Who acts:** midnight cat, rat · **What happens:** sleep, awaken, fling, not make up, open, mind · **To what, where:** midnight cat, mind, doors

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (midnight cat, rat), 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:pg3027:15:14
# text = About midnight the cat, who was still sleeping before the gate, was awakened by some water flung at her by the head rat, who could not make up his mind to open the doors.
1	About	about	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	still	still	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	acl	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	awakened	awaken	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	det	_	_
18	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
19	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
31	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	doors	door	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | past · progressive | the midnight cat |  |  |  | before the gate; still |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **awaken** | past · passive |  | the midnight cat |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **fling** | past |  |  |  |  |  | by some water; at cat | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent by water=Destination |
| 4 | **not** **make up** | could |  | rat's mind |  |  |  | by the head rat | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot |
| 5 | **open** | to-infinitive |  | the doors |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |
| 6 | **mind** |  | rat |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «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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