---
title: But, unluckily, in the midst of it, the cat raised her voice, and th… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, unluckily, in the midst of it, the cat raised her voice, and the stone fell into the ear of a big fish which happened to be swimming by, and though both the cat and the falcon sprang into the water after it, they were too late. Who acts: cat, stone, big fish, orders. A sentence of «The Orange F
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 15, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, unluckily, in the midst of it, the cat raised her voice, and the stone fell into the ear of a big fish which happened to be swimming by, and though both the cat and the falcon sprang into the water after it, they were too late.

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**Who acts:** cat, stone, big fish, orders · **What happens:** raise, fall, happen, swim, spring, be · **To what, where:** voice, ear, water

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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 (cat, stone, big fish, orders), 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:pg3027:15:23
# text = But, unluckily, in the midst of it, the cat raised her voice, and the stone fell into the ear of a big fish which happened to be swimming by, and though both the cat and the falcon sprang into the water after it, they were too late.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
3	unluckily	unluckily	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux	_	_
32	swimming	swim	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
36	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
37	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc:preconj	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	falcon	falcon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	conj	_	_
43	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
44	into	into	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	_
47	after	after	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
50	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
51	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	53	cop	_	_
52	too	too	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
53	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **raise** | past | the cat | cat's voice |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent voice=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past | the stone |  |  |  |  | into the ear of a big fish *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into ear=Result |
| 3 | **happen** | past | a big fish |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **swim** | to-infinitive · progressive | a big fish *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **spring** | past | the cat and the falcon |  |  | the water | after burden |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into water=Destination |
| 6 | **is** | past | orders *= order* |  |  |  |  | late *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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