---
title: The cat had the ball hung round his neck day and night, and he was s… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The cat had the ball hung round his neck day and night, and he was such a light sleeper that it was useless to think of taking it while he slept. Who acts: cat, ball, brother, it. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/28/111/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cat had the ball hung round his neck day and night, and he was such a light sleeper that it was useless to think of taking it while he slept.

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**Who acts:** cat, ball, brother, it · **What happens:** have, hang, be, think, take, sleep · **To what, where:** light sleeper, ball

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, ball, brother, it), 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:pg3282:28:111
# text = The cat had the ball hung round his neck day and night, and he was such a light sleeper that it was useless to think of taking it while he slept.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	round	round	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
17	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	20	det:predet	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	sleeper	sleeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	csubj	_	_
27	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the cat |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hang** | past | the ball |  |  |  | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | brother | such light sleeper |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | it | such light sleeper *not said here* |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **take** | gerund |  | ball |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 7 | **sleep** | past | brother |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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