--- title: The little hare, not daring to approach the Vilva tree, stood no gre… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics description: The little hare, not daring to approach the Vilva tree, stood no great distance off and said: “That, master, is the spot where it went ‘rat-a-tat.’” Who acts: little hare, master. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pr --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/166/) [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 grateful elephant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/) / [Opening, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/) / 166 # The grateful elephant, Opening, part 10, sentence 166 The little hare, not daring to approach the Vilva tree, stood no great distance off and said: “That, master, is the spot where it went ‘rat-a-tat.’” **Who acts:** little hare, master · **What happens:** not dare, not approach, stand off, say, be, go · **To what, where:** Vilva tree, great distance, spot, rat tat · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little hare, master), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg74064:10:170 # text = The little hare, not daring to approach the Vilva tree, stood no great distance off and said: “That, master, is the spot where it went ‘rat-a-tat.’” 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 hare hare NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ _ 5 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 6 advmod _ _ 6 daring dare VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 3 conj _ _ 7 to to PART TO _ 8 mark _ _ 8 approach approach VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 6 xcomp _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 10 Vilva Vilva PROPN NNP Number=Sing 11 compound _ _ 11 tree tree NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 13 stood stand VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 14 no no DET DT PronType=Neg 16 det _ _ 15 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 16 amod _ _ 16 distance distance NOUN NN Number=Sing 13 obj _ _ 17 off off ADP RP _ 13 compound:prt _ _ 18 and and CCONJ CC _ 19 cc _ _ 19 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 13 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 20 : : PUNCT : _ 28 punct _ _ 21 “ " PUNCT `` _ 28 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 22 That that DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 24 det _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 24 master master NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 26 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 28 cop _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 spot spot NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 ccomp _ _ 29 where where ADV WRB PronType=Rel 31 advmod _ _ 30 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 31 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 28 acl:relcl _ _ 32 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 33 rat rat NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 34 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 35 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 37 det _ SpaceAfter=No 36 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 35 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 37 tat tat NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 . . PUNCT . _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 37 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 40 ” " PUNCT '' _ 28 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **dare** | gerund | the little hare *not said here* | | | | | | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 2 | **not** **approach** | to-infinitive | the little hare *not said here* | the Vilva tree | | | | | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme | | 3 | **stand off** | past | the little hare | no great distance | | | | | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer distance=Stimulus | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the little hare *not said here* | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | | 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that master | the spot | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **go** *in a quote* | past | master | a rat tat | | | | | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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 grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (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 165](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/165/) - next →: [sentence 167](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/167/) - ↑ back to [Opening, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg74064/10/)