---
title: And with a very bad grace the cat untied the string and threw the go… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And with a very bad grace the cat untied the string and threw the golden ball into the lion’s lap, and composed himself to sleep again. Who acts: cat. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And with a very bad grace the cat untied the string and threw the golden ball into the lion’s lap, and composed himself to sleep again.

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**Who acts:** cat · **What happens:** untie, throw, compose, sleep · **To what, where:** string, golden ball, lap, cat

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat), 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:pg3282:29:9
# text = And with a very bad grace the cat untied the string and threw the golden ball into the lion’s lap, and composed himself to sleep again.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	grace	grace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	untied	untie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	ball	ball	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	lion	lion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	lap	lap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	composed	compose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
25	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	advcl	_	_
28	again	again	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **untie** | past | the cat | the string |  |  |  | with a bad grace | vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent string=Patient |
| 2 | **throw** | past | the cat *not said here* | the golden ball |  |  |  | into the lion's lap *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer ball=Theme into lap=Result |
| 3 | **compose** | past | the cat *not said here* | cat |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Result |
| 4 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | the cat *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | 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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