---
title: A little nearer to the hearth lay the once frolicsome Beni, with all… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A little nearer to the hearth lay the once frolicsome Beni, with all four feet stretched stiffly out, while the sleek cat seemed too weak to raise his head from his velvet cushion. Who acts: sleek cat. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, with its depen
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A little nearer to the hearth lay the once frolicsome Beni, with all four feet stretched stiffly out, while the sleek cat seemed too weak to raise his head from his velvet cushion.

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**Who acts:** sleek cat · **What happens:** lie, stretch, seem, raise · **To what, where:** frolicsome Beni, four feet, head, velvet cushion

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sleek 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:pg3282:31:57
# text = A little nearer to the hearth lay the once frolicsome Beni, with all four feet stretched stiffly out, while the sleek cat seemed too weak to raise his head from his velvet cushion.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	_
3	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
7	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	frolicsome	frolicsome	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Beni	Beni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
15	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	parataxis	_	_
17	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	stiffly	stiffly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	out	out	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	sleek	sleek	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
26	too	too	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	raise	raise	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	velvet	velvet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	cushion	cushion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past |  | the frolicsome Beni |  |  |  | to the hearth | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location beni=Theme |
| 2 | **stretch** | participle |  | all four feet *not said here* |  |  |  | out *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **seem** | past | the sleek cat |  |  |  |  | weak *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **raise** | to-infinitive | the sleek cat *not said here* | cat's head |  | cat's velvet cushion |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme from cushion=Destination |

<!-- .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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