---
title: But this time they had in their midst a huge black cat who seemed to… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But this time they had in their midst a huge black cat who seemed to be their king, and whom the young man guessed to be the Spirit of the Mountain. Who acts: cats, huge black cat, young man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, with its depende
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 200

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But this time they had in their midst a huge black cat who seemed to be their king, and whom the young man guessed to be the Spirit of the Mountain.

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**Who acts:** cats, huge black cat, young man · **What happens:** have, seem, be, guess · **To what, where:** midst, king, Spirit

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cats, huge black cat, young man), 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:pg641:4:200
# text = But this time they had in their midst a huge black cat who seemed to be their king, and whom the young man guessed to be the Spirit of the Mountain.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	cop	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	Spirit	Spirit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Mountain	Mountain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | cats *= cat* |  |  | cats's midst | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **seem** | past | a huge black cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | to-infinitive | a huge black cat *not said here* | cats's king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **guess** | past | the young man |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whom=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | to-infinitive |  | the Spirit |  |  |  | of the Mountain | tree rules |

<!-- .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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