---
title: The cat replied, ‘I have caught many a mouse in my day, but now that… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The cat replied, ‘I have caught many a mouse in my day, but now that I am old and past work, my master wants to drown me.’ Who acts: I, master. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, sentence 27

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The cat replied, ‘I have caught many a mouse in my day, but now that I am old and past work, my master wants to drown me.’

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**Who acts:** I, master · **What happens:** reply, catch, be, want, drown · **To what, where:** cat, me

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The War of the Wolf and the Fox. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, master), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7277:53:27
# text = The cat replied, ‘I have caught many a mouse in my day, but now that I am old and past work, my master wants to drown me.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	past	past	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	wants	want	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	drown	drown	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle |  | the cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **catch** | present · perfect · passive |  | the cat |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  | now | old *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **want** | present | my master |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **drown** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | my master *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |

<!-- .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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