--- title: And the cat waited a few days, and then it caught a donkey, and they… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: And the cat waited a few days, and then it caught a donkey, and they told the sultan, ‘Master, the cat has caught a donkey,’ and he said, ‘My cat and my donkey.’ Who acts: cat, owner, men. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/29/155/) [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 Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Nunda, Eater of People](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/29/) / 155 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 155 And the cat waited a few days, and then it caught a donkey, and they told the sultan, ‘Master, the cat has caught a donkey,’ and he said, ‘My cat and my donkey.’ **Who acts:** cat, owner, men · **What happens:** wait, catch, tell, say · **To what, where:** donkey, sultan · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, owner, men), 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:pg641:29:155 # text = And the cat waited a few days, and then it caught a donkey, and they told the sultan, ‘Master, the cat has caught a donkey,’ and he said, ‘My cat and my donkey.’ 1 And and 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 waited wait VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 6 few few ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 7 amod _ _ 7 days day NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obl:unmarked _ SpaceAfter=No 8 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 9 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 10 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 12 advmod _ _ 11 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 nsubj _ _ 12 caught catch VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 13 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 14 donkey donkey NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 17 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 18 told tell VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 sultan sultan NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 22 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 23 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 23 Master master NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 28 punct _ _ 25 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ _ 27 has have AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 28 aux _ _ 28 caught catch VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 4 conj _ _ 29 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 donkey donkey NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 32 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 35 cc _ _ 34 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 35 nsubj _ _ 35 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 37 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 38 My my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 39 nmod:poss _ _ 39 cat cat NOUN NN Number=Sing 35 ccomp _ _ 40 and and CCONJ CC _ 42 cc _ _ 41 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 42 nmod:poss _ _ 42 donkey donkey NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 44 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **wait** | past | the cat | | | | day | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **catch** | past | owner | a donkey | | | then | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent donkey=Theme | | 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | men *= man* | the sultan and Master | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent sultan=Recipient | | 4 | **catch** | present · perfect | the cat | a donkey | | | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent donkey=Theme | | 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | cat | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | 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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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 154](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/29/154/) - next →: [sentence 156](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/29/156/) - ↑ back to [The Nunda, Eater of People](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/29/)