---
title: However a cat, observing something alive in the trap, patted it abou… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: However a cat, observing something alive in the trap, patted it about till the wires broke, and set Thomas at liberty. Who acts: cat, wires. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 58

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However a cat, observing something alive in the trap, patted it about till the wires broke, and set Thomas at liberty.

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**Who acts:** cat, wires · **What happens:** observe, pat, break, set · **To what, where:** something, trap, Thomas, liberty

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cat, wires), 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:pg7439:28:58
# text = However a cat, observing something alive in the trap, patted it about till the wires broke, and set Thomas at liberty.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	observing	observe	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
6	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obj	_	_
7	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	trap	trap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	patted	pat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	about	about	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
15	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	wires	wire	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
22	Thomas	Thomas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	liberty	liberty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **observe** | gerund | a cat *not said here* | something |  | the trap |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent something=Topic |
| 2 | **pat** | past | a cat | trap |  |  |  | about, however *property* | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | the wires |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **set** | past | a cat *not said here* | Thomas |  | liberty |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent thomas=Theme at liberty=Destination |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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