---
title: It was not easy to catch the monkey off his guard, and the rabbit wa… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not easy to catch the monkey off his guard, and the rabbit waited long before an opportunity arrived. Who acts: rabbit, opportunity. 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 67

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It was not easy to catch the monkey off his guard, and the rabbit waited long before an opportunity arrived.

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**Who acts:** rabbit, opportunity · **What happens:** not be, catch, wait, arrive · **To what, where:** monkey

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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 (rabbit, opportunity), 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:pg3282:36:67
# text = It was not easy to catch the monkey off his guard, and the rabbit waited long before an opportunity arrived.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
18	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **catch** | to-infinitive |  | the monkey |  |  |  | off credit's guard | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent monkey=Theme |
| 3 | **wait** | past | the rabbit |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **arrive** | past | a opportunity |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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