---
title: It sat up and begged with its paws, and went through the prettiest t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It sat up and begged with its paws, and went through the prettiest tricks, and was almost human in the way it understood and did what it was told. Who acts: dog. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Frog, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It sat up and begged with its paws, and went through the prettiest tricks, and was almost human in the way it understood and did what it was told.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dog · **What happens:** sit up, beg, go, be, understand, do · **To what, where:** prettiest tricks, way, dog · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dog), 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:pg641:36:38
# text = It sat up and begged with its paws, and went through the prettiest tricks, and was almost human in the way it understood and did what it was told.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	begged	beg	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	through	through	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	prettiest	pretty	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	15	amod	_	_
15	tricks	trick	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
28	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	31	obj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit up** | past | dog |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **beg** *speech: request* | participle | dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with dog's paws | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **go** | past | dog *not said here* |  |  | the prettiest tricks |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme through trick=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | the way |  | almost, human *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **understand** | past | dog | the way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus |
| 6 | **do** | past | dog *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | dog |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient what=Topic |

<!-- .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 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.

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