---
title: But it was too late now, and in another minute the fox had eaten his… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But it was too late now, and in another minute the fox had eaten his way through the cabbage walls, and had caught the trembling, shivering Whitey, and carried her off to his den. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But it was too late now, and in another minute the fox had eaten his way through the cabbage walls, and had caught the trembling, shivering Whitey, and carried her off to his den.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** eat, catch, shiver, carry off · **To what, where:** cabbage, cabbage walls, trembling, Whitey, den

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg7277:13:54
# text = But it was too late now, and in another minute the fox had eaten his way through the cabbage walls, and had caught the trembling, shivering Whitey, and carried her off to his den.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	det	_	_
11	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	cabbage	cabbage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	trembling	trembling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	shivering	shiver	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
30	Whitey	Whitey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	off	off	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **eat** | past · perfect · passive |  | cabbage |  | the cabbage walls | now; minute | fox's way *obl:unmarked* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **catch** | past · perfect |  | the trembling |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trembling=Theme |
| 3 | **shiver** | gerund |  | Whitey |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **carry off** | past |  | Whitey |  | fox's den |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent she=Theme to den=Destination |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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