---
title: The Prince was wondering who the second place could be for, when sud… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Prince was wondering who the second place could be for, when suddenly in came about a dozen cats carrying guitars and rolls of music, who took their places at one end of the room, and under the direction of a cat who beat time with a roll of paper began to mew in every imaginable key, and to dra
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/32/)

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Prince was wondering who the second place could be for, when suddenly in came about a dozen cats carrying guitars and rolls of music, who took their places at one end of the room, and under the direction of a cat who beat time with a roll of paper began to mew in every imaginable key, and to draw their claws across the strings of the guitars, making the strangest kind of music that could be heard.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, dozen cats, guitars, cat · **What happens:** wonder, come about, carry, take, beat, begin · **To what, where:** dozen cats, guitars, places, one end, direction, imaginable key

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, dozen cats, guitars, cat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:23:32
# text = The Prince was wondering who the second place could be for, when suddenly in came about a dozen cats carrying guitars and rolls of music, who took their places at one end of the room, and under the direction of a cat who beat time with a roll of paper began to mew in every imaginable key, and to draw their claws across the strings of the guitars, making the strangest kind of music that could be heard.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	ccomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	8	amod	_	_
8	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
17	about	about	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dozen	dozen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
21	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	guitars	guitar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	rolls	roll	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
29	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	parataxis	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
40	under	under	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obl	_	_
43	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
46	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	47	nsubj	_	_
47	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	acl:relcl	_	_
48	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obj	_	_
49	with	with	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	roll	roll	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	_
54	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
56	mew	mew	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	54	xcomp	_	_
57	in	in	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
58	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	60	det	_	_
59	imaginable	imaginable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	amod	_	_
60	key	key	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	64	punct	_	_
62	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	64	cc	_	_
63	to	to	PART	TO	_	64	mark	_	_
64	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	56	conj	_	_
65	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	66	nmod:poss	_	_
66	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	64	obj	_	_
67	across	across	ADP	IN	_	69	case	_	_
68	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	69	det	_	_
69	strings	string	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	64	obl	_	_
70	of	of	ADP	IN	_	72	case	_	_
71	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	72	det	_	_
72	guitars	guitar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	69	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
73	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	74	punct	_	_
74	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	64	advcl	_	_
75	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	77	det	_	_
76	strangest	strange	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	77	amod	_	_
77	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	74	obj	_	_
78	of	of	ADP	IN	_	79	case	_	_
79	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	77	nmod	_	_
80	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	83	nsubj:pass	_	_
81	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	83	aux	_	_
82	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	83	aux:pass	_	_
83	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	77	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
84	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past · progressive | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **come about** | past |  | dozen cats |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cat=Theme |
| 3 | **carry** | gerund | dozen cats *not said here* | guitars and rolls of music |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent guitar=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | past | guitars and rolls of music | Princes's places |  |  | at one end of the room |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent place=Theme at end=Asset |
| 5 | **beat** | past | a cat |  |  |  | time | with a roll of paper | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with roll=Theme |
| 6 | **begin** | past |  |  |  | the direction of a cat |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **mew** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | every imaginable key |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **draw** | to-infinitive |  | Princes's claws |  | the strings of the guitars |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent claw=Theme |
| 9 | **make** | gerund |  | the strangest kind of music |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset kind=Product |
| 10 | **hear** | could · passive |  | the strangest kind of music |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 11 | **roll** |  |  | music |  |  |  |  | nom roll «event transitive»: of=patient |
| 12 | **roll** |  |  | paper |  |  |  |  | nom roll «event transitive»: of=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 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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