--- title: He wanted to take it out and look at it, but the White Cat said it w… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: He wanted to take it out and look at it, but the White Cat said it would be better not to open the acorn till he was before the King, in case the tiny dog should be cold on the journey. Who acts: Bow, White Cat, it, tiny dog. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/70/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The White Cat, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/) / 70 # The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 70 He wanted to take it out and look at it, but the White Cat said it would be better not to open the acorn till he was before the King, in case the tiny dog should be cold on the journey. **Who acts:** Bow, White Cat, it, tiny dog · **What happens:** want, take out, look, say, be, not open · **To what, where:** dog, acorn, case, journey · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (Bow, White Cat, it, tiny dog), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:23:70 # text = He wanted to take it out and look at it, but the White Cat said it would be better not to open the acorn till he was before the King, in case the tiny dog should be cold on the journey. 1 He he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 2 nsubj _ _ 2 wanted want VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 to to PART TO _ 4 mark _ _ 4 take take VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 2 xcomp _ _ 5 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 obj _ _ 6 out out ADP RP _ 4 compound:prt _ _ 7 and and CCONJ CC _ 8 cc _ _ 8 look look VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 conj _ _ 9 at at ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 10 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 8 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 12 but but CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 13 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 14 White white ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 amod _ _ 15 Cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nsubj _ _ 16 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 conj _ _ 17 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 18 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 20 aux _ _ 19 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 20 cop _ _ 20 better good ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 16 ccomp _ _ 21 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 23 advmod _ _ 22 to to PART TO _ 23 mark _ _ 23 open open VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 20 csubj _ _ 24 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 acorn acorn NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obj _ _ 26 till till ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 27 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 28 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 31 cop _ _ 29 before before ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 King King PROPN NNP Number=Sing 23 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 33 in in ADP IN _ 34 case _ _ 34 case case NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obl _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 36 tiny tiny ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 dog dog NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 nsubj _ _ 38 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 40 aux _ _ 39 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 40 cop _ _ 40 cold cold ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 acl:relcl _ _ 41 on on ADP IN _ 43 case _ _ 42 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 43 det _ _ 43 journey journey NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **want** | past | Bow | | | | | | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | | 2 | **take out** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Bow *not said here* | dog | | | | | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 3 | **look** | infinitive | Bow *not said here* | | | | | at dog | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the White Cat | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **is** | would | it | | | | | good *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **not** **open** | to-infinitive | | the acorn | | case | | | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent acorn=Theme in case=Location | | 7 | **is** | past | Bow | | | | till the King | | tree rules | | 8 | **is** | should | the tiny dog | case *not said here* | | the journey | | cold *property* | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/69/) - next →: [sentence 71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/71/) - ↑ back to [The White Cat, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/23/)