---
title: In the meantime let us enjoy ourselves; to-night I have ordered a ba… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the meantime let us enjoy ourselves; to-night I have ordered a battle between my cats and the river rats on purpose to amuse you.” Who acts: you, us, I. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 2, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the meantime let us enjoy ourselves; to-night I have ordered a battle between my cats and the river rats on purpose to amuse you.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, us, I · **What happens:** let, enjoy, order, amuse · **To what, where:** us, meantime, ourselves, battle, purpose, you

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, us, I), 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:pg503:24:42
# text = In the meantime let us enjoy ourselves; to-night I have ordered a battle between my cats and the river rats on purpose to amuse you.”
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	enjoy	enjoy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	ordered	order	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	between	between	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	conj	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	purpose	purpose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	amuse	amuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
28	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | us |  | the meantime |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **enjoy** | infinitive | us *not said here* | ourselves |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ourselves=Stimulus |
| 3 | **order** | present · perfect | I | a battle |  | purpose | night | between my cats and the river rats | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent battle=Theme |
| 4 | **amuse** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus you=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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