--- title: But the cat curled up its tail and put its back up, and answered: ‘I… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: But the cat curled up its tail and put its back up, and answered: ‘I have served you all these years and you never even threw me a bone, but the dear children gave me their own piece of ham.’ Who acts: cat, I, you, dear children. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28), --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/63/) [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 Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/) / 63 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch (28), sentence 63 But the cat curled up its tail and put its back up, and answered: ‘I have served you all these years and you never even threw me a bone, but the dear children gave me their own piece of ham.’ **Who acts:** cat, I, you, dear children · **What happens:** curl up, put up, answer, serve, not throw, give · **To what, where:** tail, back, you, bone, me, own piece · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch (28). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, I, you, dear children), 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:pg640:39:63 # text = But the cat curled up its tail and put its back up, and answered: ‘I have served you all these years and you never even threw me a bone, but the dear children gave me their own piece of ham.’ 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 4 cc _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 curled curl VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 0 root _ _ 5 up up ADP RP _ 4 compound:prt _ _ 6 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 tail tail NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 obj _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 put put VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 conj _ _ 10 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 back back NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obj _ _ 12 up up ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 14 and and CCONJ CC _ 15 cc _ _ 15 answered answer VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 16 : : PUNCT : _ 20 punct _ _ 17 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 20 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 18 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 19 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 20 aux _ _ 20 served serve VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 15 ccomp _ _ 21 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 20 obj _ _ 22 all all DET PDT PronType=Tot 24 det:predet _ _ 23 these this DET DT Number=Plur|PronType=Dem 24 det _ _ 24 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 20 obl:unmarked _ _ 25 and and CCONJ CC _ 29 cc _ _ 26 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 27 never never ADV RB PronType=Neg 29 advmod _ _ 28 even even ADV RB _ 29 advmod _ _ 29 threw throw VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 conj _ _ 30 me I PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 29 obj _ _ 31 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 32 bone bone NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 34 but but CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 37 det _ _ 36 dear dear ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 38 nsubj _ _ 38 gave give VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 39 me I PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 38 iobj _ _ 40 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 42 nmod:poss _ _ 41 own own ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 amod _ _ 42 piece piece NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obj _ _ 43 of of ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 44 ham ham NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 46 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **curl up** | participle | the cat | porringer's tail | | | | | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient | | 2 | **put up** | infinitive | the cat *not said here* | porringer's back | | | | | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent back=Goal | | 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | | | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **serve** | present · perfect | I | you | | | year | | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Attribute | | 5 | **not** **throw** | past | you | a bone | me | | | | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Destination bone=Theme | | 6 | **give** | past | the dear children | children's own piece of ham | me | | | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient piece=Theme | 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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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 62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/62/) - next →: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/64/) - ↑ back to [The Witch (28)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/39/)