---
title: He had often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice, as when he used to hang by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if he were dead; so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him some help in his miserable condition. Who acts: master, cat. A sen
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots, sentence 12

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He had often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice, as when he used to hang by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if he were dead; so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him some help in his miserable condition.

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**Who acts:** master, cat · **What happens:** see, play, catch, use, hang, hide · **To what, where:** cat, great many cunning tricks, rats, master, meal, miserable condition

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (master, 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:pg503:21:12
# text = He had often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice, as when he used to hang by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if he were dead; so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him some help in his miserable condition.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	often	often	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
8	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
9	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
14	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	hang	hang	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
30	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
37	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
38	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
41	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	49	punct	_	_
43	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	49	case	_	_
44	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	43	fixed	_	_
45	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
46	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
47	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	48	advmod	_	_
48	altogether	altogether	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
50	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Gender=Masc|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
52	affording	afford	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	49	acl	_	_
53	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	obj	_	_
54	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	55	det	_	_
55	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obj	_	_
56	in	in	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
57	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	59	nmod:poss	_	_
58	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past · perfect | master | cat |  |  |  | often *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **play** | infinitive | cat *not said here* | a great many cunning tricks |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trick=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** | to-infinitive | cat *not said here* | rats and mice |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rat=Theme |
| 4 | **use** | past | master |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **hang** | to-infinitive | master *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by the heels | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by heel=Location |
| 6 | **hide** | infinitive | master *not said here* | master |  | the meal |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient in meal=Location |
| 7 | **make** | infinitive | cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 8 | **is** | past | master |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **afford** | gerund | master | cat |  | master's miserable condition |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **condition** |  | master |  |  |  |  |  | nom condition «state transitive»: poss=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 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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