---
title: It shows much more skill to be able to catch a small thing that can… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It shows much more skill to be able to catch a small thing that can hide itself in a moment behind a leaf. Who acts: It, small thing. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It shows much more skill to be able to catch a small thing that can hide itself in a moment behind a leaf.

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**Who acts:** It, small thing · **What happens:** show, be, catch, hide · **To what, where:** more skill, small thing, skill · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, small thing), 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:pg3282:36:59
# text = It shows much more skill to be able to catch a small thing that can hide itself in a moment behind a leaf.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	shows	show	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	skill	skill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
8	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	leaf	leaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **show** | present | It | more skill |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent skill=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **catch** | to-infinitive |  | a small thing |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 4 | **hide** | can | a small thing | skill |  |  | moment |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Patient |

<!-- .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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