---
title: Some of the black cats had followed him, and, not having been fed fo… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Some of the black cats had followed him, and, not having been fed for several days, they were fearfully hungry, and made terrible havoc among the mice. Who acts: cats. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 173

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Some of the black cats had followed him, and, not having been fed for several days, they were fearfully hungry, and made terrible havoc among the mice.

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**Who acts:** cats · **What happens:** follow, not feed, be, make · **To what, where:** black cats, terrible havoc

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cats), 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:pg503:2:173
# text = Some of the black cats had followed him, and, not having been fed for several days, they were fearfully hungry, and made terrible havoc among the mice.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
13	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	aux	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	fed	feed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	parataxis	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	fearfully	fearfully	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
27	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	havoc	havoc	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	among	among	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | past · perfect · passive |  | some black cats |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP.attribute»: subject=Theme he=Attribute |
| 2 | **not** **feed** | gerund · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  | day |  | vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient» |
| 3 | **is** | past | cats *= cat* |  |  |  |  | fearfully, hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **make** | past |  | terrible havoc |  |  |  | among the mice | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset havoc=Product |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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